Monday, February 23, 2009

Korea 2008

It was only yesterday that I suddenly realised that we had forgotten to share with everyone our Korea photos during CNY!! Aiyah, what a shame....

So, I post here some of the photos taken of us by our photo-cum-assistant-tour-guide on our trip. Shh.... she wasn't supposed to give us 'soft' copies, but I think she genuinely likes us. The 30,000-won tip (~S$30) which we gave her probably helped, too.

At Nami-Island:



At Mt Seorak:





At YongPyong Ski Resort:



At Kimchi School:



At Lotte World:



Some of those taken by ourselves are on WY's blog. Others we'll find time to share here again.

Friday, February 20, 2009

CNY2009 Office Potluck Party

This year, my colleague spearheaded a CNY party in the office. It was meant to be a potluck party, with each participating guest contributing some food or drinks.

I got M's help to fry some bee hoon for the party. Items contributed by others include: Roast Chicken, Roast Duck, Fishballs, Tau-Pok, Rojak, Ngor-Hiang, Roast Pork, Sauteed Prawns. My colleague also proceeded (against our advice) to cook one whole big corning-ware-full of white rice.



For desserts, we had Agar-Agar, Steamed Waterchestnut Kueh, Mini Chocolate Eclairs, some CNY cookies and Sparkling Juice. Takeaway for everyone (to bring back to own work station) was a Ferrero Rocher.



The star of the lunch was my colleague's Lo-Hei. She had generously added 2 cans of abalone to the heapful of radish & carrot shreds. Many persons 'new' to our such CNY lunches were delighted at this although most of us who know the generosity of this colleague were no at all surprised. There were plenty of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' nonetheless, when everyone saw the dish.



There were some people who came to the party at the sole invitation of my colleague - some of us do not like the company of some of these 'invited people'. Moreover, these 'invited people' came empty-handed - this made those of us who contributed food wonder why they were so privileged? In summary, some people were less than happy with this 'personal' invitation of my colleague. Sigh, I also feel that my colleague should not have done this (wrong)doing.

So, instead of taking more photos of people at the party, I just took photos of the food and ate as heartily as I could with my 'preferred company' at the party.

2009牛年贺词

今年,WY 和WF 合作,一起向长辈们拜年、给他们送礼物。贺年的词儿,有提炮竹的、梅花的、牛的、橘子的等等。其中有一些词儿是看了参考书学的,有些是我们自创的。

向大姨拜年的:

炮竹四起接五福,梅花一支报三春!

(送炮竹一串和梅花一支)

向二姨拜年的:

牛年行好运,大吉又大利!

(送牛型扑满一个和吉祥橘一盆)

向舅舅拜年的:

牛年百福、一帆风顺!

(送牛型扑满一个和新年门帘一张)

WY 和WF 念过了这些‘开头’的词,俩人都念道:

合:XX人,
WF: 恭喜发财,
WY: 万事如意,
WF: 步步高升,
WY: 年年有余,
WF: 岁岁平安,
WY: 事事顺利,
WF: 生意兴隆,
WY: 财源广进,
WF: 龙马精神,
WY: 笑口常开!
合:恭喜,恭喜!!

正月十四 :United Square, Roland & The Village

HA, Michelle, J and S stayed over at our place on Saturday. As WF had lesson at LW School at United Square the following morning, we invited J to come along with us to United Square and after WF had finished his lesson, to go together to Roland Restaurant for our lunch gathering.

R and I brought WY, WF and J out with us after breakfast on Sunday. WF proceeded to class promptly after we arrived at US. Then, we proceeded to the bookshop for some materials which WY needed for a class 'experiment'. At the bookshop, J also chose for himself some luminous dinosaur cut-outs.

After that, R and WY went to Challenger whilst J and I proceeded to the toy shop called Early Learning Centre (ELC). There was a toddler girl playing on the mat which the shopkeepers had put in the shop for children to 'try out' their various toys. Something (I think it was a toy car) the girl was holding attracted J. Suddenly, J raised his arm at the girl!

The girl's alarmed mother called out to the children, and said, 'No," to J. I reprimanded J once I realised that he had been close to landing his hand on the girl. I quickly apologised to the girl's mother profusely, too, before J strode out of the shop by himself in a huff, wearing a glum look on his face.

Once outside, I quite angrily asked J why he had raised his arm. He said that the girl had refused to give him the toy when he asked for it. I explained to J very firmly that it was wrong to try to 'beat' the little girl (or in fact, anybody). We could have waited for our turn to play that toy, I told J. J looked away but nodded. Before long, J took my hand and pulled me into ToysRus which is 2 doors away from ELC.

By then, R and WY had joined us. So we all went into ToysRus.

After browsing around for a few minutes, we were drawn to the 'Transformers' shelf. Eventually, J chose a 'big' Optimus Prime Animated. At my suggestion, WY picked a Thomas & Friends engine which we don't have at home, for WF to add to his collection.

When we proceeded to the check-out counter, the cashier pointed out that there was an ongoing promotion on Transformers - if we buy an Optimus Prime-in-a-Tub, we could get the Optimus Prime Animated which J had selected, for 'free'! So, we went for that package, and J was so delighted that he said, "WF is going to get a Big Surprise after his class!"

Then, R and I brought WY and J to the basement for a rest and drink. J also went on the Thomas & Friends 'Carousel'.



After his class was dimissed, WF was, as expected, delighted at his 'Optimus Prime-in-a-Tub'! Then we all quickly proceeded to the car so that we could get to Roland's Restaurant as fast as we could. Lunch had been arranged at this restaurant because it is M's favourite. There was a total of 16 persons (including HA's parents-in-law) expected at that gigantic table!



On our way to the restaurant, J was sternly scolded by R in the car for slapping WY. J told us that WF had been the one to instigate him to slap WY. Eventually, we reprimanded both WF and J after getting out from the car.

Lunch was served soon after we arrived. Those who had arrived earlier had ordered many dishes, including US Roast Duck, Sotong-paste in Fritters, Venison, Yam Ring, Fried Mee Sua and Salted Egg Crabs! Some I cannot remember now. For dessert, we had Yam Paste with Gingko Nuts. (I didn't take many photos at lunch except one of the Crabs.)

After the fulfilling lunch, everyone went home. J asked to go home with us and arranged with HA to come to get him later in the evening. On the way home, we dropped by at the NTUC supermarket for some grocery shopping. We bought mainly dairy products like cheese and milk. J also chose some konnyaku jellies while WF got some honey-stars.



Once we reached home, WY had to complete his work and tuition with CP. WF also finished his homework before playing with J. I completed some chores (mainly ironing). R took a l-o-n-g nap.

By about 7:15pm, R and I had had our showers and changed into fresh clothes. We were going to a concert at the Esplanade. And so, M and CP took charge of the children at home.

*******************

The show called 'The Village' was an excellent Taiwanese production.

It spoke of a story of how during the 1940's & 1950's, Dependents' Villages were set up in Taiwan when Chinese soldiers (fighting against the communists) were resettled in Taiwan following Chiang's retreat to Taiwan. It was such a very funny and yet very touching show that many in the audience (including R and I) had had to wipe our tears at many parts of the story. R and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly learning about this sub-culture of the Taiwanese people.

The show ended at 11:30pm, and we were treated to a bun at the door, courtesy of the sponsor for the show. R and I munched on ours as we made our way to the car.

By the time we reached home, it was past midnight. CP and M had settled WY and WF into bed but both of them were wide awake as R and I stepped into the house.

It turned out that F had lost his bunch of keys, house keys included. So, M was especially worried about the house being broken into etc. Eventually, it was decided that M would use our spare padlock at her place for the time being. M and CP finally dozed off after some minutes of grumbling.

R and I took our showers and also went to sleep at about 1:00am.

正月十三

年初十至正月十二,我们大伙儿都去工作、上学,没什么过年的活动。

*********************

正月十三是个星期六。这天,R 和我照常带WY 和WF 上课,最后一堂课是文化艺术团。因为我们计划好了在这一天,再一次捞鱼生,所以,我比R,WY 和WF 早一些回到家,准备捞鱼生的蔬菜。



大伙儿来到时,鱼生差不多准备好了。突然,有人按门铃!啊!原来是CP,YP 和我订的蛋糕送来了!YP 把蛋糕放一旁,每个人都各就各位,再一次捞啊捞,捞啊捞!这时,CP 也念道:

一帆风顺,双喜临门,三阳开泰,四季平安,五福临门,六六大顺,七星高照,八八八八,久久同心,十全十美!

哗,真不赖吧!



随后,我们便‘大吃大喝’,吃得非常‘满’意!

**********************

大概9点钟的时候,我们便把那两个大蛋糕拿了出来,准备切蛋糕咯!



这两个蛋糕,是有典故的。J 的,是M 几个月前就答应送给他的。S 的,则是因为我们怕她看到哥哥有那么大的心爱图样的蛋糕而‘妒嫉’,才决定为她也订购一个‘属于她’的同样大小的Strawberry Shortcake 蛋糕。即使我们有点担心我们吃不完两个大蛋糕,但还是决定就这样办了!

J 和S 看到了蛋糕,开心极了!两人兴奋地和蛋糕合照,乐得眉开眼笑!



唱了歌,J 快吹蜡烛的时候,WF 突然一声不响地便把蜡烛的火吹灭了!弄得J 高声抗议!还好,我们大家都赶快把蜡烛再点亮,一边吩咐WF 不能再把火吹熄,一边脆J 快把火吹了!这时,J 才满意了。

看来好像不知道自己‘做错’了什么的WF 不好意思地站在一旁,让我想起了我小时候,在那间‘大屋’里的一次经验。WF 比我幸运多了,这里的大人们没因为他误吹了蜡烛而羞辱他。



大伙儿吃着蛋糕,一边讨论待会儿剩余的蛋糕,该怎么办?虽然YP 已经带了盒子来准备装一些蛋糕回家,但是,两个蛋糕的分量,真的是很多!

结果,我们能吃的,都吃多一点儿,才勉强地把需要收藏的蛋糕分量减少了许多。CP 也带了一些回家去,隔天慢慢继续吃!R 回公司办一些事,所以,我们留了一大碟蛋糕给他!

这时,J 走了过来对YP 和我说:“二姑、三姑,next time can you all buy me a Gordon cake,please? A big, big one with many carriages 。” 我们说:“Ok,but we have to show the baker a picture of Gordon so that he knows how Gordon looks like. Can you show him?”他回答道:“OK, see this !”

*************************

这一天晚上,HA 一家人决定在我们家过一夜。J 要求跟WF 睡在一起,所以,最后J 跟WF 在我和R 的房间睡。HA 哄S 睡觉,所以跟M 挤在一间房间。出外跟朋友聚会的Michelle,回来得晚,睡在WY 的房间。

半夜里,J ‘偷偷’地跑了出去找HA 一起睡。后来R 知道了,就把WF 借给J 的Thomas & Friends 被子也拿到HA 那边,帮J 盖好, 让大家睡好,一觉到天亮!