Feb .... CNY at Wong's

12 Feb

New Year's gathering at Wong's Place.

After some tossing of ideas, we finally decided on steamboat! Then, who prepares the steamboat??????

Haiz....me, as usual!

Managed to get some stuff organised and also got Raymond to accompany me to Giants at Parkway Parade for marketing. Got all the stuff we wanted and also the lo hei from Cold Storage. Wong was kind enough to pick us up from the mall.

Gerald and Sam were already there when we got in. Wong, Tony and I started to get all the stuff ready for the steamboat. Usually, we would have pot luck or cater nasi lemak buffet but we decided to try something new - steamboat!

Small ben and his friend, Adrian came and finally Albert, late as usual!

The steamboat party turned out quite good. The balcony was an ideal place to have the steamboat. There was enough food for everyone and we also had special rice cooked by Gerald and a cake bought by Sam, not forgetting the new year goodies!

I have a great time and I believe the rest would agree with me!

------ Sawbear Travel -------------

Feb ......Chinese New Year

It has been a while since I last updated my blog..... February has been an eventful month. Started with Chinese New Year.....



2nd Feb Half day at the office. Everyone was just waiting for the hotline to end at 12:00noon. Then, some last minutes shopping before going home to prepare for the Reunion Steamboat Dinner.
The Reunion Steamboat Dinner has always been exciting. This year, we opened 8 cans of abalone! Crazy! As usual, nobody wanted to open the lid..everyone wanted to 'grab' as many slices of abalone! It was so fun!

After dinner, it's giving out of red packet! At my age, I am still entitled! My brothers were all very kind to me!

3rd Feb

1st day of the New Year! Nothing much happened......went to the supermarket, a yearly ritual for me.

The families came over in the afternoon and went over my cookies / and their favourite melon seeds. Yanti prepared simple dinner for all of us.

Went to the airport to fetch Stephen, arriving for Hong Kong. The flight was on time and did not take long for us to reach home.


4th Feb
1st Ang pow for stephen! He got up and wished mum and mum gave him 1 red packet! Gerald's mum also gave him 1! Really brightened up his day!

This morning, was to meet up with K and visit Dad's grave. K fetched us from home and we met all of the other brother there.


After the cemetery visit, we went back home to rest and then off to Vivo City to see the new attraction on the bridge to Sentosa. Lots of people there as well!
In the evening, went over to Gerald's place for dinner. He invited some friends over. It was a good evening.

5th Feb
Checked in this afternoon at Ibis Singapore for overnight stay. The room was not big but cozy enough. The mini fridge was really mini........though.








Went over to the Esplanade and also to River Hongbao. The place was crowded with lots of locals and tourists. Went over to Marine Square for dinner - sukiyaki dinner before heading back to the Hotel.
6th Feb
Went over to Orchard road and had high tea at the Mandarin Gallery. It was pretty good. Then, went to buy lo hei for dinner.
The family came and we had potluck dinner. The lo hei was interesting for Stephen as it was his 1st time! Dinner was simple but enjoyable!

Stephen managed to collect ang pows from my brothers! Not bad!

7th Feb

Early morning trip out to the airport for Stephen to catch his flight back to Hong Kong.

Glad that Stephen could come and spend Chinese New Year with me and my family.



-------------- Sawbear Travel -----------------

Feb .......... Bangkok Trip

The long awaited trip finally came!

It started with just me and Stephen going over to Bangkok. We planned to catch up dinner with his God Daddy and friend and also with my Bangkok family. Then, we heard that Chartchai was not well and the Hong kong family has decided to fly over to visit him around the same time as us. The Taiwan family came to know about this and they immediately bought ticket to join us. Everyone would be there!

24th Feb

TG 404 bound for Bangkok is ready for boarding...... the flight journey is estimated to take 2 hours...kindly have your seat belt fastened, the seat upright and your tray table stowed...... soon we will be landing at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport......

Clearing immigration was a hassle especially when it is rather slow. Still, glad that it did not take too long. The luggage was out pretty fast and soon, i was out into the arrival hall. Went to buy a prepaid sim so that I could get connected with a local number and then patiently waited for Stephen's arrival. His flight was less than an hour after mine and soon,. he was out too. We then took a cab ride to Centrepoint Apartment Sala Daeng.

Check in was fast and soon we were into our apartment. It was a one-bedroom unit. It was pretty ok. Gary was waiting for us at Silom (as the taxi driver took him tp the wrong place) and the hotel receptionist showed us the direction to Silom road. It took us about 15 mins to get there!

Met up with Gary and went for a drink at the nearby coffee house. Stephen has not seen his Daddy for a year! You could see the joy in Stephen when he met up with him!

Daddy brought us to Richard's for dinner where we had pizza, chicken and fish for dinner. I have to say that the dishes were not very appetitizing.

After dinner, we went over to Siam Paragon to make reservation for dinner at the Oishi Grand. Did some shopping at MBK before meeting up with Pobe at Siam Paragon. Glad to catch up with Pobe again. The last trip to Bangkok was Feb last year!

25 Feb

Got up pretty early for breakfast. Here, they had various choices : Japanese, Western, Thai and even Chinese. It was rather good.

Went over to Big C but the shop we went last year was no longer there. Then,w e went over to Isetan at CentralWorld. Found a stall selling chinese Dim sum and ordered some. Th dishes were pretty delicious.

Walked around CentreWorld and also back to Siam Discovery Centre to amend dinner reservation after finding out that Derrick n Albert would also be joining us!

Went back to the apartment to rest and decided on a simple dinner ..... egg n noodle n whatever I could find! Tough to be frying eggs with butter (took some from breakfast table). Manged to have some mushroom soup with corn and also wanton and bbq pork pieces as ingredients for the noodle. Even if the food was not tasty, I doubt Stephen would dare to mention it!

Wanted to visit the Suan Lum Night Bazaar and when we got there, we found out that it was closed! Lease problem. So, we decided to go for foot massage. It was really foot massage as I could not feel any thing! So different from the foot reflex in JB!

Finally decided to walk along the silom night market and also to the supermarket for Stephen to buy some local produces.

26th Feb

After breakfast, called Jack and Joseph to arrange what time to meet. They had arrived about 2am and was still in bed when I called! Then, Derrick n Albert arrived and msn me. We met over to meet up with Jack n Joseph at Pathumwan Princess and then to Pullman Hotel King Power to meet with the rest. Derrick n Albert were already there. Win came over from the hospital and then Wallace n Frankie finally arrived.

We went over to the hospital to visit Chartchai. His room was huge! There was a huge living room and then the bedroom. He catered lunch for all of us and mind you, it was not a simple lunch! We had so much food and dessert! There was simply too much to eat! Then, we had a surprise and it was 2 birthday cakes - one for Stephen and one for Wallace. So thought of Chartchai and Win!

After visiting, we split to have our own program. Derrick, Albert, Stephen and myself went over to Centara to tailor some shirts/ suits. We left earlier to go back to apartment to freshen up.

Dinner was at Oishi Grand. Gary came with Sumate and bought a cake as well. The rest started to arrive and soon we were tucking in tp the buffet spread. The restaurant is very well known for the Japanese buffet spread. We had a lot of fun eating and chatting away!

The cake came out and we all sang Stephen the Happy Birthday song. (The cake, however, did not live up to the standard......)

2nd session was at a pub near Silom and we continued with drink & snack, even after so much to drink and eat at dinner!

27th Feb

Trying to sleep in late was not easy when you want to eat the breakfast at the apartment! Hahahahaha!

Decided to get the laundry done in the morning. Bought the token from the reception and just wash n then dry. Simple!

Then went out for lunch at Siam Centre before taking the BTS to Surasak station. HealthLand was the destination. Booked aromatherapy massage for the group at 3pm and had to be punctual. The massage was good for some and so-so for others.

As usual, we went separate ways for own activity till dinner time. Joseph treated me and Derrick to a nice restaurant at Siam Paragon for drinks and we ended up ordering food as well!

We met up with all again at Sala Daeng station and Stephen took us to Bua Restaurant for dinner. By the time the food arrived,. we realised that we ordered enough food to feed an army! There were so many dishes on the table! So much to eat and so much to chat and laugh! It was really fun!

After dinner, some of us called it a night while some others went on to party the night away!

28th Feb

Nothing much on this day except breakfast as usual and then final packing. Managed to extend the check out time to 1:30pm.

Called a cab to the airport and then lunch before we went separate ways for our flight home.

The trip was very good for me. I managed to get the family together (and even good friends). The last time we all met together was quite a while ago!

Stephen was able to meet his Daddy again and also Sumate. It was something that he has always wanted to do.

The apartment was actually quite good. After staying for a while, I actually found it comfortable. We managed to find short cut to Silom and that was pretty good!

The weather was, on the average, not as hot as we thought.The nights were windy.

Most importantly, I was able to celebrate the special day with the someone special. It meant a lot to me and I hope that the trip was just as memorable to that someone special......


----------------------- Sawbear Travel ----------------------