Birthday Celebration

Today's dinner is to celebrate Chek Kong and Kor Poh's birthdays. As usual the venue is in East Ocean Restaurant. What a pity Ko-ko could not make it to Ipoh as his team decided that they would be leaving for Johor on Sunday morning at 9am.

We went in 3 cars. Upon arrival, the first thing requested was fried fish crackers. 

Soon dinner was served. This dish unfortunately had peanuts so Mei-mei could not eat. 

Nicely presented

After being mixed up

Of course, we had their signature prawn dish:

Suckling pig, but in a different style. It had glutinous rice under the skin and salad in the middle:

Stir fried duck with some condiments and served with the fried mantao:

My assembled mantao

As Mei-mei was weary of the duck having peanuts, Chim Poh ordered a serving of fried rice, which was mainly eaten by Mei-mei and Martin:

The third dish utilizing the duck was the glass noodles:

And since it was a birthday celebration, the chef also suggested noodles (a dish usually served for birthday dinners: signifying longevity). So we had a small portion:

And most importantly is the dessert followed by fruits:

Dinner is not complete without alcohol!

Just as we started our journey home, I noticed that Waze indicated police on the route home. So changed driver (Ah Ma), took a longer route (Uncle Dennis) and took the risk to drive home (Yvonne Kor-kor).

We finished off the celebration with cake at home:  

Happy Birthday Chek Kong and Kor Poh!

Evelyn's First Attempt

Today, we decided to have home cooked food instead of buying lunch after piano classes. So we asked Kakak to steam up the potatoes which daddy and I had bought earlier ready for us when we come back. 

I had also defrosted some sausages, so while I fried up the sausages, you prepared the mashed potatoes..

Well, you seemed to be able to follow instructions and made a rather tasty batch of mashed potatoes. Good job!!

Dim Sum Lunch and off to Ipoh

Yesterday evening, we decided to have dimsum in Grand Imperial for lunch. We also invited "Yam Cake" Kor Poh and Kor Teoh to join us for lunch. The food here is always very impressive. Except today, Ah Kong and Ah Ma over ordered the food.. wah.. we had to stuff ourselves with the food. 

Enjoying our meal

Daddy finally got to order the roast duck which he keeps eyeing every time we are here to dine:

It was delicious!

After lunch, Mei-mei and I headed to Sunway Pyramid in search for the Pop Mart shop. But they didn't have what she wanted. The rest of you had gone to drop off the leftovers at your place and to pump petrol. After picking us up, we headed to buy the cake which Kor Poh had requested from you. Ah Kong had gone back first with Uncle Dennis. 

Dinner was at Lam's Kitchen before we dropped you home and started our journey to Ipoh.

Celebratory Dinner

Tonight's dinner is at your favourite restaurant. We decided to go for the Omakase course. It was certainly a good choice. You headed there with Uncle Dennis in a Grab (so that you all could go home in Ashley Kor-kor's car after that) while the rest of us went in the Mazda. 

We started our meal at around 7.30pm and by the time we were done, it was past 9.30pm and the staff were already cleaning up. It was an amazing feast and we were treated to many different flavors in Japanese cooking:

And daddy and I were so proud to see that Mei-mei did not shy away from the different types of food given. You only about gave up at the last 2 dishes of somen and sushi. But then you suddenly had space for the ice-cream!!

Enjoying the oyster!!

Of course, the amazing waitress also helped to take a family photo for us:

It was a wonderful dinner and thanks also to Ashley Kor-kor and Uncle Dennis who helped to arrange for this Omakase feast... and to our paymaster, daddy 😜.

Loved the double celebratory dinner.. both for Ko-ko's graduation and also our 21st wedding anniversary.

Graduation Day and a Spanish Feast

We had to wake up early as the plan (before I went to sleep) was to leave the house by 6.30am. When I woke up and had showered, I was wondering why daddy had not woken up yet. Turned out that there was a change of plans and he had forgotten to tell me. We would be leaving the house at 7am instead. 

Anyhow we managed to leave the house on time and we cut the time taken to exit the housing estate by following the directions from Waze. Traffic was havoc. But we made it to Sunway at 8am. Even then, the parking in Sunway University was already full. So we headed to park in Sunway Medical Center. 

As lunch would be late, we decided to eat breakfast in the Coffee Bean in the hospital. Unfortunately the food took too long and we had to have them pack it up and then headed to the Jeffrey Cheah hall where the ceremony was being held. 

We were given the QR code for the event and got this too:

You had collected our "entrance" bands in advance and we met up with you to collect them before you headed back to have the robes pinned while we found our way to the hall. 

The hall was already very packed, but we managed to get quite good seats. 

So many graduands for this round!

They shared photos and I managed to get this shot of your class:

You received your scroll from Professor Elizabeth Lee, CEO of Sunway Education Group:

After the 100+ students from your batch received their scroll you messaged us to leave the hall. You had "escaped" with some of your friends to take photo. 

Since you had grabbed everything, we could leave after taking some photos. 

It was around 11am when we headed back to the hospital to eat some breakfast while you headed back home to shower and change. Then we picked you up and headed to Marta's Kitchen where we met up with Ah Kong, Ah Ma, Mei-mei and Uncle Dennis. First things first is the drink which you requested to have: Sangria. Cheers!!!

Family photo

We had so much to eat.. almost everything was delicious!

As it was still early, we headed to Starling where we had the craft beer at The Great Beer Bar.

Uncle Dennis later left a little earlier while the 3 of us hang around before also heading home to rest a little before our dinner feast.

On to KL

As Ah Kong and Ah Ma were joining us to go to KL this trip, we could not fit into 1 car and we only had 1 driver who's familiar with the roads in KL, we decided that 2 of us would head to KL separately. The initial plan was for Mei-mei and I to take the train down. But by the time our plans were firm, the (very early) train was full!

In the end, the two of you headed to KL by plane which was not much more expensive than taking the train. In fact, when factoring in the Grab cost, I'd say the plane was a cheaper alternative.

So early today, we left at 8am to pick up the kuih with 6 of us in the car. Then we headed to the airport and dropped the two of you off. We then made our way to the second bridge. The traffic was crazy! 

We finally exited the second bridge at 9.20am. 

Daddy took a slow drive with Ah Kong and Ah Ma sitting at the backseats. You'd both arrived and headed to college to pick up the graduation robes. Then headed to Ko-ko's condo to rest and for Mei-mei to eat teottboki (which was supposed to be upon arrival, but ended up just as we were reaching the condo, making us wait for the two of you!!)

By then, it was nearly 1pm and then we headed to Kor Poh's house to drop the kuih and then we went to our next stop for lunch. It was quite heavy traffic to go to the famous Village Park Nasi Lemak. By the time we arrived, it was 2pm and yet the shop was quite full still. Luckily we didn't have to wait for a table, we took one upstairs. 

Our orders came quite quickly, perhaps not as fast as Ko-ko reckons it usually would (or maybe we were hungry and thus impatient). Everyone had the fried chicken set, while I tried the beef curry set. We all agreed that it was so yummy and worth the price of around RM13 for quite a large portion. 

Then we headed to Ashley Kor-kor's house. Uncle Dennis was home, so we unloaded and rested a bit before it was time to head out to dinner. 

There were 14 of us at dinner. The 2 Kor Poh's were treating us to dinner at Restaurant Gold Dragon City. Wow! They sure ordered a lot of food. We left the restaurant feeling very full...

Headed home to shower and then get ready for bed. We have to wake up early the next day to arrive in Sunway College by 8am.

First things first!

First meal back is curry mee (since it's a Sunday and CKT was not open). But on the very next day, this was what you had for breakfast:

My happy kid..

2025 Celebration of Learning

As we approach the end of the school year, everyone in the school is in a frenzy for the preparation of the annual Celebration of Learning. This year you (only) have 3 tasks.. manning the Year 7 Science booth, helping out at the Botanicals booth to prepare the ingredients for the salads the booth is selling and also the dance performance. 

I dropped you at school before 7am as you needed to help out in both booths. Then later I arrived back in school via Grab at nearly 9am. I thought that you told me your performance was at 9am! After a mad run to the MPH, I messaged you to find out that it was to start at 10am. Duh.. 

Chatted with Aunty Amy while waiting for your performance. It looked amazing, although someone did fling her fan away at the end of the dance 🤣

After that, I wandered around and had nothing to do. Caught up with you at the Science booth. But since it was so hot and I had nothing much to do, I headed to the training room to attend the secondary SAP. It was an interesting sharing and also a much welcomed rest for me to be able to sit down and enjoy the cool room.

By the time it was done, it was 12pm. So we waited a little for Ah Kong.

Photo of my pretty little gal with her makeup on

Lunch (like last year) was the pre-ordered McDonald's. Lucky for you that there was no ballet lessons. So you got to rest for the day.

Teacher's Day Celebration

As last week was exam week, the celebration was brought forward to this week. 

I nearly forgot to plan earlier with you. In the end, I managed to place an order for Sunday's delivery and so we had to make lots of space in the 2 fridges to keep the items until today. You picked chocolate brownie and madeleine. 

I asked you to prepare the card so that we can print and stick them to the boxes. Reminded you to ensure that the spelling is correct.. and yet when I checked my e-mail... there was a spelling error.. aiyo.. had to fix it and then have them printed..

The teachers were appreciative (although I cannot brain why you have so many teachers to give to). You received thank you in person and also via MS Team. 

I'm glad we managed to get this small gifts to the teachers. 

Day Out with Evie

No karate, no golf. Today ended up as Queensbay day. We headed over to have lunch at the foodcourt, buy some stuff for you and then decided to have ice-cream. Inside Scoop had a promo for matcha ice-cream with all sorts of things in the cone. But.. they had NO matcha ice-cream. So we didn't buy from them.

Instead, we went to Chateraise and they had a great selection of matcha ice-cream: cone, cup etc. 

So we each picked something and sat down to enjoy dessert. Look at the happy face:

Nanna's Birthday Celebration

Thank goodness that I had remembered to place an order for a cake at the Bread History in the office on last Thursday before we headed to KL. So today, we picked up the cake from BH in Queens Waterfront before heading to the restaurant, Fu House (which Nanna recommended). 

Lunch was just Nanna, Ee-ee and 3 of us. Teo-teo had to work today even though it's actually a public holiday, Wesak Day which I guess is not recognised by his workplace. 

We picked some dishes to try and it turned out quite nice. Good place to go to for dinner next time.  

Then we brought out the cake and sang (softly) the birthday song to Nanna. 

Birthday Girl

Family photo

Cutting the cake and making a wish

Then we headed to Nanna's house to sit around for a while before heading back to Penang. A certain little girl had to study as the next day is the start of the EYE. 

Last day in KL

Today is Mother's Day. Ashley Kor-kor booked a table for us at Grand Imperial in Sunway Pinnacle for dim sum. As Uncle Dennis was to catch a bus to Singapore in the evening and it didn't make sense to go home to pick up his bicycle in it's ginormous carrier, we dropped Chek Kong, Chim Poh and Kor Poh at the restaurant before heading to pick you and Denisse. 

Strangely, I did not take any photos at all today. Haha.. After lunch, we planned to walk to Sunway Pyramid to buy Garrett Popcorn. But just as we were about to start walking on the walkway, Yvonne Kor-kor called daddy to say that one of the lights on her car had turned on. So daddy headed back to the carpark to check on her (she was supposed to send the oldies to their next stop). And the 3 of us walked to Sunway Pyramid. 

He wasn't done even when we had finished buying the popcorn. So we headed back. In the end, Yvonne Kor-kor could start the car and could only drive home. We called a Grab to send Chek Kong and Chim Poh to the manicurist while we drove you and Denisse home. Then we dropped Kor Poh home and we headed out for a quick visit to Uncle Hun Kheng. He kept pestering daddy to drop by. It's always hard to make the time to meet up, so we decided to hop over to his house. He had just "officially" moved into this new home. Uncle Wai Yin and family were there too. 

We spent some time there then had to head back home. I packed up while daddy took a short nap. Then we picked you up and headed to the dinner location, Restoran Pin Xiang. Luckily Ashley Kor-kor had arrived earlier and ordered the food. We still had to wait for a while before our food finally came. While daddy and I were not too hungry (we ate at Uncle Hun Kheng's house), you were hungry. The food was not too bad. After dinner, we had to make our move back to Penang. Ashley Kor-kor dropped you home so that we didn't have to detour back to Sunway.

We arrived back in Penang before Monday (11.45pm) hehe.. 

It was a lovely weekend well spent with you and I'm glad that we made the decision to make this impromptu drive down. Too bad Mei-mei could not come with us. Or else we'd all have a lovely time together. I'm sure our presence cured your loneliness and homesickness. And we also got to see you.. we have been missing you.. Win-win for everyone 💗

Day out with Evan

Today, we woke up to buy nasi lemak for breakfast. Then we all left for our lunch plans. Uncle Dennis was Smoky's driver to send him for his grooming session. Chek Kong, Chim Poh, Kor Poh and Ashley Kor-kor had lunch plans with Jack Min Ah Pek who was treating them to lunch as a farewell to Pek Kong who's going over to New Zealand.

As for us, we planned to pick you up and feed you. In the end, we decided to go for Spanish. And headed back to Fat Olive which we had been to many years ago. There was no one there, and we ordered a yummylicious platter.. and Sangria.

No alcohol for you, but you did take a sip and said that it was nice...

Next time

Platter.. it was quite filling!

Next, we searched for a cafe to have cakes and found this place called Lachér Patisserie. We nearly went to the wrong place, the HQ. Just as we started the journey you said that it was not a cafe. So we input the outlet and found another location for this place. 

When we arrived, we had to wait a little for a table to open up. It wasn't too long before one was available. So we ordered our dessert and coffee and went upstairs. Soon our yummies were served:

Then we headed home to rest and relax.

That evening, we went this chu char called Restoran 88. We almost could not get a place. Even parking was difficult. But we were lucky that while patiently waiting for another car to park, a family got into their car (parked nearer to the entrance) and so daddy got to park there.

You didn't eat too much. Reason? You wanted to go home and eat the CKT which we had packed for you. You later messaged me to say that 1 packed was not enough. You ended up eating both packets for SUPPER!!

You see? You should have listened to us long long time ago when we kept asking you to tar pau some back to KL whenever you came home. By the time you realise that packed ones are just as good, it's too late. You're already at the end of your A Levels!! Duh!

Surprise!!!!

We made a (rather) last minute decision to head to KL to see how you were. We've been checking in on you for your meals and every time, you complain about the food, the price of the food.. 

So last night, daddy checked with Ashley Kor-kor to see if she's ok with us crashing at her place. Turns out Chek Kong and gang are visiting too. But they arranged for the 3 of them to share a room and for the 2 of us to take the other room. We had to leave Mei-mei behind because she had her busy weekend schedule, and also needed to revise for the upcoming exams next week. 

This morning, we dropped Mei-mei in school. But had to make an extra trip to school. She had left her badge at home which would be her third time meaning 1 demerit point. So we rushed back to pick it and battled the jam back to school. Then we headed to Kg. Jawa to eat and tar pau your favourite CKT. We bought 8 packets: 4 for you and 4 for the occupants in Ashley Kor-kor's house. 

Rushed back home to shower then went out again for our dentist appointment. After all was settled, we headed back home to pack and have another shower, and clear some work before starting our journey down south. 

Today's journey took so so so much longer. We were stuck going uphill towards Menora Tunnel. That jam added an extra 40 minutes, resulting in us hitting KL right smack into the office rush hour. But we were too early to head to the dinner location. So we headed to Nu Empire to pick up some sake for dinner. 

Let me rewind back to our planned surprise: I had (cautiously) checked in on your dinner plans. You had told me Jyu Raku. So I asked the time you planned to leave (added a "worry" for high Grab cost and traffic). The Ban clan decided to join us at Jyu Raku. Uncle Dennis was already next door as he had just come back from Singapore. Our table (for 11 pax) was booked and he had told Zen (the captain) to inform you that they were fully booked!

So everyone arrived and we parked further so that you wouldn't notice daddy's car. When Uncle Dennis confirmed that you and Denisse had arrived, we headed to the restaurant and daddy pounced on you with a big hug. The look of surprise on your face was priceless. 

Shortly later, everyone else arrived and we ordered a feast for dinner. This is your favourite.. and after tasting it, I understand why.. it's amazing!

We then dropped you both back to your accommodations and headed to Kor-kor's house to rest for the night. 

We're so glad that we made the plan to visit you. You also looked so happy that evening with family (and your parents.. )