Lion Dance

What is Chinese New Year without a Lion's dance? It's like a birthday cake without the candles.

Child's fantasy is child's fantasy and Laetitia is no exception to that. We do wonder where she gets all her imagination from.....

Tame the Bull

A public holiday, where else to spend our hard-earned cash than at the local hypermart, sourcing a new fridge to replace the current 'dinosaur' currently in use.

Amidst all the household apparel our eyes caught the sight of a machine, which made us wonder, what the heck it was doing there amongst the household stuff. In all their excitement Laetitia and uncle Toh decided to give it a try-out and yippiieeee.....a bull-ride for free.

Ofcourse Jessica couldn't resist herself to give it a go too......this massage thing provided more fun than many so-called thrill rides at expensive theme parks.

Oh, and for those of you who are thinking 'differently'....keep it to yourself, as this is a family-friendly blog :p

Aaah, yes, almost forgot.....we did purchase a new fridge in the end :p

Angpow for our Saviours

1st day of Chinese New Year, and ofcourse a public holiday here in Malaysia.

And rather auspiciously, our house was struck by a powerfailure, which was rather inconvenient (as where the heck are we going to find an electrician who's willing to work on this day?!?). We finally resorted to calling the helpline of our electricity provider, "Tenaga Nasional" and given our past experiences with them, we were certain that they would take their sweet, jolly time to come and help us.

A technician did call us and in an effort to speed up those guys, my wife said the magic word "Angpow for you".....these 3 words did the trick, in no time were those guys in front of our house, even forfeiting their lunch, and dutifully helping us out by repairing the problem.

15mins of work, in return a big angpow for each of them and some mandarins and a drink to quelch their hunger and thirst.

We were saved and they enjoyed a bit of Chinese New Year hospitality......big clap for this true showing of Malaysian multi-cultural society!! :p

Year of the Ox

Chinese New Year's eve....

It's this annual period again, a 15 day long bash of festivities, family visits, temple visitations praying for good luck....

It all starts off with a sumptuous New Year's eve dinner at mums and pops house, and then the whole carroussel begins for the next coming forthnight.....sure it is jolly fun, but oh so tiring, hopping up and down, and yes, it hurts the pocket a bit too, what with the anpgpows for the kiddo's.....but heck....it's part of Chinese tradition/folklore....and we ain't sidestepping from it.

Happy New Year!! Gong Xi Fa Chai!! Kong Hei Fat Choy!!

A personal touch

Chinese New Year around the corner.....

And it's an age-old tradition amongst Chinese to give eachother hampers, angpows (little red packets with money) to eachother to wish one well for the coming year.

Great was our surprise that some students (3 sisters) of ours approached us with a box of mandarins and a pack of dried, roasted meat (a local delicacy). Not only that, on the box was printed their respective names and a wishing well message.

So touching......:) Such gestures make our life as teachers much more meaningful than a big, fat bonus at the end of the year

First day of school

New year, and ofcourse, first day of school for the little gal.

And since it was her first day as a brandnew Primary 2 pupil, we as parents felt obliged to stop by and see how she was doing.

Last year there was still a bit of anxiety as to whether she would adopt to her 'new' environment, but she has become an 'ancienne' by now, knowing the in and outs of her school, far much better than us.

But alas, she also knows the power of money by now, immediately nagging us to give her some dough to purchase items from the school stationary outlet.

We bet it will be not the last time she begs for money, .... as long as it is for school purpose....we're cool with that....but buying nasi lemak or fried mee at the canteen on the pretext of buying healthy food (like fresh fruit)....no way miss Yuen....forget about that!!!

Handyman tricks

Well, finally got the time to fix an apparent leak on my bathroom ceiling.....or...ermmm...rather called somebody up to fix a leakage.

There was a wet patch on our bathroom plaster ceiling, meaning there must be some pipes producing a leak somewhere and as a result, slowly but surely forming a wet patch on my coveted ceiling.

Rounded up the plumber.........after taking a look at it, "Sorry sir, I cannot help you as this leakage is produced by the aircon conduit"....

Grrmmmbbbbbllllll..................rang up my aircon dude. And ofcourse, since it was end of year past week, he took his jolly sweet time to reach my house.

But at least he arrived, better too late than never ........

"Where is your manhole to reach above the plaster ceiling?" ....

"Eeeeuh, what manhole? Open your eyes, you see any?.....mmhhhmmmm....there is a ceiling exhaust fan, but I don't think you can squeeze through it, that's good enough?"

"Sure, we can fit right in there" :)

"If you say so, I wanna see that happening, 'cos I sure can't fit through that rathole."

Amazingly, that dude really was able to squeeze his way through that tight hole, and duly repaired the leakage.

Did I say repair? Well, he did ask me whether I had a small plastic container to spare......eeeuh yes, you read it correctly, plastic container. Okay, no probs, here you are, plastic container.

He moved back up above the plaster ceiling again and after a minute came back down again.

What the heck, what had he done?

"I want to see for myself what you have actually done up there, do you mind?"

"Sure, go ahead"

Kewl or lol.....should I cry or laugh? The repairman simply put the plastic box under the leaking pipe so that if there is anymore future leakage it will be collected in the plastic container....and all I have to do from time to time is to make empty the contents of it in order not to spill it again on my plaster ceiling.

Simple but effective but oh so amateuristic

Men will always be boys

Sunday, 4th of January, and everybody is still trying to shake off their jitters from all the partying past forthnight.

A good remedy is to do some sports but since this particular Sunday is a bit dreary, overcast and drizzling, it's not tempting to venture out and actively engage into any physical activities. And ofcourse our local football field isn't playable yet as the developer is finally doing the last touch-up before we can reclaim the field the next weekend.

Instead of falling into a void, I called up 'John'.....an avid Dutch-loving football player of our team, whose only love consists of beer and ofcourse football.

"Hey dude, anything on? Kinda nothing to do, how bout you?"

"Go trim my hair a bit and ermmmm, nothing anymore"

"Mmmmhhhhmmmm.....you fancy a game of footie?"

"We have a game on today?"

"Nah, footie on the Xbox.....just for fun, FIFA 09, just got it for my birthday."

"Count me in, am bored anyway"

Quickly installed the console in the living room, whistled up some titbits and drinks, closed the curtains and yieehaaa....we were set for a few hours of blissfull, uninterrupted game session.

To be frank, I do play it on a regular basis with kiddo's, but I've never played with a dude my age since ages......and gosh, did I get a lesson in possession football. I sat on the edge of the couch, all tensed up most of the time, whilst John sat there calmly barely breaking a sweat....

I barely remember the score, but I do have to admit that this FIFA session was my most physical yet.......he won a few, I won a few, and we were happy with that. A pure stalemate.

Finishing the day off with leftovers from the 'B' party, .....it doesn't take much and it certainly does not cost much to have an enjoyable day.

And yeah, herewith it is proven that Men will always be boys.......

Another milestone, a big 4 + 0

What was supposed to be an intimate, close family and friends only, surprise event turned out into a big endeavour.

Never really been a social beast myself and really didn't give a thought about doing something particularly special on my 'B' day, but the lady of the house decided otherwise......

Whilst Laetitia and me were in Belgium, Jessica back home set up in motion a 'surprise' which has turned out into something pretty grand.

Secrets are eventually bound to leak out and there was no exception to be made regarding this party, so there was no hiding the fact that something was in store for me when I came back and noticed that the house was stacked with drinks and quotations of caterers all over the place and on top of that, the caterer put up his tents 2 days in advance of the party day itself. Say good-bye to your surprise for me, honey.

The event itself was a total success, thanks to the splendid food and service provided by the caterers, AsiaGarden, ...... the yummy satays roasted on the spot by 'Din', the Menjalara satay dude....and foremost, the guests themselves.

Sure we had a rough figure in mind of who and how many would turn up, but we never expected such an enthusiastic turn-out, and since my 'B' day is so conveniently close to New Year's day itself......the crowd was still in festive mood.....and ready to party on.....

Thanks, thanks, and many thanks......everybody involved, everybody who attended and also thanks to the people who weren't able to attend but at least sent me a ring or sms to congratulate me. It's those small things that makes one happy.....no matter how much one has in material terms......I cherish the value of having a 'family', 'friends', my football buddies and my neighbours .... the more the merrier.

Talking about family, a big thank word to my wife's close family who always render a hand without questions asked....it might not be my 'direct' family, but over the years I have accepted them for who they are and what they stand for and I graciously thank them for letting me join their 'inner' circle. But above all I have to thank my dear wife, Jessica for her loving, unselfish, total devotion and my little girl for being just that, our own very daughter who magically is able to brighten our mood on somber days but still manages to get the blood from under our fingernails when she puts up a tantrum.

And the big 40? What 40!?! It's just a mindset.......be who you are, just enjoy 'life' in all its facets itself.

BTW (ByTheWay), Eileen, you should consider a course in photography, great pics gal !!! Thanks for imprinting my birthday on pictures, 'cos a pic says more than a thousand words....and ofcourse Kennyboy, my man.....captain of the football team and handyman....tx for letting us borrow your professional camera gear.

Almost a decade into the 21st century

First day of the year 2009.

Another year forwards on the calendar, 2009, a day like any other day but for most people it has a symbolic meaning. Time again to look forwards to the near and far future, take stock of what has been accomplished and what not. From missed chances and mistakes we learn, and we all start afresh with a lot of goodwill.

It's kinda surprising that there is a contrast of celebration between the West and the East. I expected much more fanfare and hoomph....but at the stroke of midnight it was surprisingly 'quiet' in our neighbourhood.....apart from one dude lightning up his stash of contraband fireworks, there was no festive mood to be seen or heard. What a difference with the Western hemisphere where it is party galore. Thing is that local people here put more emphasis on their respective New Year celebrations (Malays, Chinese 'Lunar', and Indians 'Deepavali') than on the 'western' one.

That means, we get to celebrate New Year not only once, but four times a year down here in Malaysia, woopiee :p

Nevertheless, we have entered the year of 2009, and despite the real life hardship and struggles that everyone faces, we wish you a very happy New Year from all of us at Yuen family. Remember......the best is yet to come.