In the past when I was a student, I never got to spend Chinese New Year with Grand Daddy, Mummy, Juliana, Margaret and Diana because the break just wasn't long enough for me to make the trip back.

But next year is going to be so so different!

Now that Grand Daddy and Mummy and the rest of the family has moved here, Grand Daddy suggested going away for the Chinese New Year and we have planned to go away in a BIG way.

We will be going to Aonang Buri Resort and there will be 11 of us making this trip!

Yes, 11.

Grand Daddy

Grand Mummy

Cheryl

Daddy

Me

Aunt Diana

Uncle Ben

Aunt Margaret

Aunt Juliana

Grand Father

Grand Mother

Here are some shots of the resort we will be hiding in while we are there.

It's going to be some Chinese New Year!

This package arrived in the mail yesterday and I am very pleased with the results!

Daddy had commented that he does not have a calender for the new year so I scouted around to get this done for him.

It's a personalised calender of us! Daddy will have this calender sitting on his desk at work so that he will not miss us.

For the past 2 months, I have been lugging my laptop between work (whenever I went back, which was often) and home because our home pc died on us. And we finally got ourselves a new one with Uncle Ben's help.

He had been wanting to get a new computer for himself for the past one year but has been holding himself back because his is still running. But with his recommendations, Daddy and I got ours. :)

After a great lunch at Maxwell Market with Grand Mummy and Daddy; who later went on for his chemo session, the 5 of us headed down to Sim Lim Square to hunt for the best deal. We spent a good 4 / 5 hours there but at least we didn't leave empty handed. Thank you, Ben and Diana!

Daddy is still working on the computer now as I am blogging. But I am very thankful that we finally got a new computer. Daddy was really sweet because I told him that it would be very tedious for me to carry my laptop and walk back in my 4-inch heels with groceries. Yes, I try to be a wonder-woman sometimes and squeeze as many chores together.

Thank you, dear!

And he can start playing games on the new pc soon! :)

I received yet another call looking for "Nancy Koh" again.

Honestly, I can't really remember how many times I have gotten calls meant for Nancy Koh. Banks call, Insurance agents call... I hope Mr Long aka Loansharks Long doesn't call. And the weird thing is, these calls for Nancy Koh have been consistent throughout the year so I can only say, my cell phone number has been distributed and used "regularly".

I am contemplating reporting this to the police. Is this a case of identity theft?

Uncle Fong came down to join us for Christmas this year and before he left, we decided to give him a treat.

We went for some Hong Kong- style food and I must say, we were all pleased that Grand Daddy found the food nice and appetizing.

Here we have Cheryl clowning around before the food arrived and she was all smiles.

But she found herself sitting by the wall when she tried to spit on the floor. Daddy had warned her to stop but she must have thought it was cute and continued her antics.

After dinner, we decided to walk down the street to have silken bean curd (our favourite)!

We all just got up and walked off after we had eaten our dessert and then Aunt Di stopped and ran back to settle the bill. We had forgotten that we hadn't paid for dessert! That must been quite a scare for the staff there and we would have "earned" ourselves the name of "free loaders of tou hua".

Cheryl wants to thank all Aunts and Uncles for all your presents! She didn't even want to wash up before she headed for her presents.

Daddy and I got Cheryl a learning system for Leapfrog and it was the perfect gift because she was excited and wanted to start reading the books immediately. I am convinced that Leapfrog is a great learning system because it is from the DVDs that I got her that she learned to recite her alphabets phonically.

Think I will be hitting the Internet soon to order more books for her.

Here is wishing all, a Merry Christmas and may your new year shine as brightly as the star on top of the tree! :)

It has been a while since C had her ears pierced and I was reminded to change Cheryl's ear rings by the ladies at the gold smith. I was contemplating not getting new ones from the shop as the one that I saw and liked cost a hefty $69 which I thought was a little too extravagant for a little girl.

Besides, I know I would need help in changing her ear rings; need someone to hold C down so I procrastinated and it proved to be a terrible move because her piercings started to get infections. While we were at Grand Mummy's, I thought C's aunts could help me and Aunt Juliana was generous to give C 2 pairs of hers.

Initially, I wanted to let C wear those ring ones and although putting them through her ear holes was easy enough, I could not get them to close and C was wailing because it was so painful to have me twisting at her ears and uncomfortable to have her aunts holding her down.

I tried for a long time and it was not a pretty sight because her ears started bleeding quite badly. Finally, we succeeded in changing her ear rings to studs and by this time, she had cried so much, she vomited. My poor baby... She had been having so much pain because of the infections so we had no choice but to change her ear rings. At least now, her ears will finally heal.

Daddy was trying to soothe his little darling, so he told her that she could join us for our car wash later. C brought her tricycle down to keep herself occupied. And while Daddy and I wash our car, she decided that her tricycle; courtesy of Aunt Rina and Ayra needed a wash too.

Here, C giving her wheels a wash! She had initially wanted to help Daddy with our car (she tried to wash off the soap on the bonnet) but Daddy thanked her for her effort and gave her the clothe for her own wheels.

Her little ride, all clean and then she wanted to give Daddy a ride. She instructed Daddy to climb on board while she sat herself at the wheel, literally.

We met up with the Aws for steam boat dinner and we drove ourselves to a hawker centre in Bedok for some really delicious Cheng Teng. The kids love the dessert and they would have finished the entire bowl if the mummies didn't stop them!

We decided to give Uncle Zixian, Aunt Colleen a call and got them to meet us for dessert since it had been ages since we last saw them. And as luck would have it, they came down with their 2 little princesses, Bernie and Nicolette.

I think the last time we saw Nicolette was when she turned 1 month old and now, she has become such a pretty little thing!

Just look at our darlings having fun together!

As the night was still young, Daddy suggested we visit Changi Airport Terminal 3. The children, except for Cheryl, had not been there.

Give them a large space, and what do we get?

Children running amok! Actually, we wanted to tire them out so that they would sleep more soundly tonight! Hee.

Uncle JM was really sweet to offer to drive us to Harbour Front where we were to board the Star Cruise Virgo. So after picking up Aunt Angie from work, we went there. This was our first time onboard a vessel this big and naturally we were all excited.

But the queue at the boarding area was a killer because we didn't know where the queue ended or started and there were so many people. By the time we boarded the vessel, it was 10 plus in the evening and time for supper.

This is our cabin. It was small but self-sufficient and even though the space was compact, it had beds to sleep 5 people. Cheryl slept on the pull-out between us. But her favourite must be the upper deck where she liked to climb up. There was also a sofa-bed in there.

We went to a chinese restaurant, Pavilion for supper. What was amusing was, no sooner than the time we sat down, the dishes were served. We then found out, that since food in 3 restaurants on board were free, the dishes were fixed and all the waiters and waitresses needed to do was to serve the dishes. Jun An, by that time had already gone to Slumberland and missed most part of the supper. But he did wake up to get some porridge and then he was so alert, playing with C that he didn't go to bed till the wee hours in the morning.

We went around exploring the ship a little just before supper. We were amazed by how beautiful the place was. C wanted to jump into the pool and we had to hold her back literally.

That is Uncle Chee Kang, Daddy's pal at work with Aunt Ivy. Jun An is fast asleep in his pram and that is our supper spread at the Pavilion.

We went to Uncle CK's cabin to enjoy the view; his cabin had a balcony and it was quite a sight seeing the night skies and having the wind blow in our faces.

The next day, we had breakfast at the Mediterranean Terrace. Needless to say, our kids had a ball of a time there.

There were lots of activities onboard to keep us occupied. We went for live performances and played some games too.

We went to the sun deck after breakfast to have a good view of the sea.

It was rather fun because there were also activities like rock climbing and ball games that we could play. C even tried her hands on some rock climbing.

Daddy too!

We also had the chance to venture onto the Captain's bridge where we saw the crew in action.

We saw Mr Bean in action and I wonder if it was because of an overdose of Mr Bean because when C was dancing later on, I thought she resembles him so much!

We went exploring the vessel more and the kids found this!

Checkers, anyone? We also spent some time at the game arcade where C made a beeline for the Harley she saw.


The interior of the vessel does look grand and nice with the Christmas decor.

We went for some fanciful japanese food for lunch.

After the kids (and us) had a good nap, it was off to the pool for some water-splashing time! Of course, C and Jun An had a swelling time playing in the pool.

While the kids and the Daddies played in the pool, I took these shots. The vessel had docked at Kuala Lumpur by this time. It reached Malacca at 7 am on the 20th but we were in La La Land still. Initially, we had planned to alight at Malacca to do some shopping but that would mean, we had to take a coach on land to KL before we could join the cruise again. Daddy and I didn't think it would be a good idea to lug our shopping around so we decided to stay on board.

I have to do this: If you are having doubts about Mamy poko, rest assure this is the brand of diapers to get! Jun An had not pooed for the day and Aunt Ivy had him wear this to the pool for precaution. He didn't feel inhibited at all and while he played, the diaper did its job of absorbing water. We could see his movement getting clumsier because he was weighed down by the diaper.

No matter how much and hard Daddy squeezed this thing, NO water leaked from the diaper! Ha ha!

After dinner, we took some pictures around the vessel. This picture of us was taken by our Precious. (Not bad, for a 2.9 yr old)

And more of Mr Bean!

On the last day, under the advice of Uncle Chee Kang, we decided to pick up our passports early to avoid a long wait later on. While Daddy was in the queue, Jun An and C were running around and playing catch with each other and all of a sudden, I found C hiding among the seats with this little fellow! He followed C around and even whispered to her at times. Hmm... kids do make friends very easily, I can see.

Then after we packed our luggage, we went for our last meal on board the Virgo.

I told C to pose for a picture and she did this! (Makings of a model?)

Our lunch! Actually, we ate a lot on board and there was never a moment where we went hungry! The smile on my face says it all! (Now I have to go back to dieting to lose the extras I put on!)

More pictures of the kids clowning around on the deck before we finally alighted.

It had been a wonderful experience being on board the Virgo and though we only spent about a day on board, it was time well spent because C made a new friend. She had been great and she kept herself in control; she told Daddy and me that she had been a good girl and didn't "push" Jun An Di di. :)

Oh, Cheryl turned Cinderella and lost one of her crocs on the way back. Looks like I will be shopping for another pair for her soon.

And a big thank you to Uncle JM for coming to pick us up again!