Chinese New Year Eve and a Birthday Celebration

Today, we continue to clean up and finish up the preparation for our popiah dinner. Chim Poh's brother dropped by and gave us some of their Hakka meat ball. So we had that with your pork bone porridge lunch:

Meatball.. complete with the chili sauce

Pork bone porridge

After lunch, daddy prepared the blender to blend the peanuts, sesame and melon sugar in preparation to make the "seung wan yuen". Ah Tai used to make this for us to take home when we visited on the 9th day, but since the family no longer gathers on the 9th day, Ashley Kor-kor and I have taken to making them for Chinese New Year.

All shaped and ready to be rolled in flour when the "order" is placed

Soon it was time to prepare the ingredients for dinner. Kor Poh fried the ingredients one by one. Then it was set up in front of the ancestral altar for prayers.

After that, it was time to mix them all together. Daddy and Ashley Ko-kor were the chefs.

Of course there were other supervisors:

Smokey..

.. and Chim Poh

And soon dinner is served:

After washing up and clearing away the dishes and leftovers, it was time for dessert:

Longan-laici drink

We also had fireworks which Chek Kong had insisted to have, and Ashley Kor-kor's friend helped to buy.

After that, we all freshened up and it was time to bring out the cake for the birthday celebration. Yup it's Ah Ma's birthday and since we didn't have cake on Friday, we managed to place an order for a cake from STG (which was convenient seeing that it was just a 3 minute drive from the house). And the cake was delicious.

Family picture:

And of course, the day was not complete without some evening drinks.

Back to Ipoh

We always head back to Ipoh on the eve of the eve because we know there are loads of cleaning, cutting, preparations and fixing to do before Chinese New Year. We were also hoping to get to enjoy some Ipoh food which we missed so much seeing our last trip was cut short. Unfortunately, just like the hawkers in Penang (we checked out so many Hokkien Mee stalls so see if any would be open today but no avail), many of our favourite hawkers in Ipoh were also closed. Luckily the yong tau fu stall was still open. Also Ashley Kor-kor's friend also bought us curry mee as she had mentioned to her that we wanted curry mee but the usual was closed. While the yong tau fu was yummy, sadly the curry mee was not something we were used to.. so we didn't enjoy it as much as we would from the usual stall.

Well, I did mention that the "express bus" was scheduled to leave at 8am? Seeing that it is a "Malaysian express bus" we only left Penang at 8.45am. 

And here is our VERY FULL car boot:

We took a slow drive to Ipoh. The traffic wasn't too bad. Then again, we're travelling in the opposite direction of most people, so we usually won't encounter much traffic. In fact the traffic in December was way heavier than today.

So right after we arrived and unloaded. We feasted on the delicious food at home and then started to "work".

Daddy helping to clean up the car porch with the high powered jet

Cutting up the ingredients for tomorrow's popiah

The dreaded chandelier cleaning

Tonight's dinner was leftovers and roast duck (which was delicious) and the kids had pizza. Daddy, Ko-ko and Yvonne Kor-kor went to pick up the pizza from the restaurant we discovered in the last trip. The rest of us at home were waiting and waiting and wondering how come it took you all so long. I messaged Ko-ko and he told me "flood". I was surprised as all we had at home was strong winds and a little rain. 

Turned out that you drove pass the aftermath of a freak storm. Trees felled and many houses were sadly ruined. Thankfully the three of you came home safe.

After dinner and freshening up, we had our happy hour, chatting while the kids entertained themselves. Hailey and her mum joined us for dinner and some evening chat. 

Reunion Dinner with the Yeoh's

We had been buying and buying so many things in preparation for the Chinese New Year. We're all very excited seeing that we had a very subdued celebration at home last year (first time ever we did not go to Ipoh nor to BM).

Here's the car boot.. fully loaded.. just for that one meal with everyone in BM: 

As it was steamboat, we had bought a lot of the raw ingredients. All Nanna and Grampy had to cook was the soup. 

The table laden with items to cook

The side table freed the main table from clutter and we could eat in peace

A random picture of everyone waiting for the soup to boil

We started ahead instead of waiting for Alex Ku-ku and Ah Kim because they had started their journey from KL late.. and of course the traffic on the highway didn't help the situation. 

By the time we reached home, it was late. And luckily I had already packed for Ipoh (our clothes as well as the foodstuff) the night before. So all we had to do was have a quick shower and jump into bed. 

Daddy said that his "express bus" would be leaving at 8am sharp for Ipoh the next day.

Ah Ma's Birthday Celebration

As we had plans over the weekend (CNY reunion dinner in BM on Saturday and heading back to Ipoh on Sunday), we went ahead and planned to celebrate Ah Ma's birthday today.

Unfortunately, I planned too many events today. I took half the day off and since we forgot to pick up Ko-ko's pants from Gurney when we headed downtown in the morning, we had to go pick them up first before heading to Queensbay Mall. There I had my nails and eyebrows done before heading to Uncle Austin's for my CNY hairdo. 

Daddy, Ko-ko and Mei-mei all also had their haircut in preparation for Chinese New Year. Here's a photo of Mei-mei's hair. Quite a bit was cut off.

Before. At the waist

After.. still looks long. But at least 3-4 inches had been cut off

We finally made it back home for a quick shower and then off we went to Suffolk House. When we arrived, there were some moo-moo and a bridge. Mei-mei asked to have a photo taken:

We enjoyed the set dinner while Mei-mei had her kid's meal. And also her Strawberry Daiquiri: 

I had planned to buy a cake for Ah Ma but ran out of time. So another cake was planned instead.

Naughty boy!!

So many photos in my phone!!!

Guess who is the culprit? Laughing behind me!
 

Belated NYE Cheese Platter

With our dinner late, longer and more filling, we could not stuff ourselves anymore with the varieties of cheese and ham which we had bought. so it was postponed to today:

Belated, but still just as nice. Yummmm....