sitting on a desk
looking at the cold gray day
an artist i dream
♥
photo dim sum snack
i woke up reheating some dim sums this morning. it just felt like i needed to have something chinese for breakfast since i spent my reunion dinner drinking three glasses of red wine.
it’s chinese new year today and there is no jiu hoo char, no bak gua, no ang pau.
i think of everyone at home feasting and chatting loudly around the reunion dinner table.
lau juak they say.
ah ma running around and checking on us worrying that we don’t have enough food on our dinner plates. she is always too busy to sit at the table and eat. mommy eating prawns and fishes and papa asking for more chilis. daniel laughing because i would say something silly.
children in their new clothes anxiously accepting ang paus and mumbling gong xi fa cai to uncles and aunties at the command of their mothers. adults (the women usually) holding generous stack of ang paus in their hands ready to give them out. the rest sitting in the living room munching kueh ka pik also known as love letters and sipping from packets of yeo’s chrysanthemum or bamboo tea.
men gathering outside away from the chaos either smoking cigarettes or playing cards, or both.
when no one sees us, mommy and i would look inside my ang paus and make mental notes for next year. this is necessary because it is pai seh to receive more than you give.
lau juak.
that is all i missed today.
hugs.
for the non-penang-hokkien-readers: jiu hoo char is a nyonya dish of turnips, carrots, pork, dried cuttlefish, mushrooms. bak gua – dried barbeque pork. ang pau also known as lai see – red packets with money inside :) uncles and aunties – how we malaysians refer to everyone older than us. pai seh – also sometimes known as lose face which means embarassing but a bit more than that. lau juak – so merry that you feel the warmth from everyone…
this is how i spent my new year. at desa park city.
everyone looked like they were on fire *s*
my aunt and uncle and their daughters from perth, australia were there.
we played and danced all night.
happy 2009.
*by the way, my new obsession is with poladroid these days (google poladroid and you’ll see why). I have kinda given up on salt and vinegar chips. and sorry for the bad picture quality.*
Let me present to you – my father. Or papa as we call him.
I like this photo a lot. It is so my papa. He does not have many photos where he smiles like that. Or where he stands like that with gloves on *s*
He is not exactly a tall man but he has the biggest heart in the world. He has a million friends which explains why he is a very busy man. He drives his car every day and he finds his way in Kuala Lumpur and neighbouring city Petaling Jaya like nobody’s business. And KL is not exactly an easy city to drive in.
Papa is a smart man. He does not drink at all (not even when we nag him) and he loves fish heads.
♥
And this is my mother. We call her mommy.
I took this photo in February 2008. I like this photo a lot because she looks so lovely in her polka dot top. I like the way she looked down as well.
Mommy is cool, smart, and she laughs like nobody’s business. People who know me would say that I laugh a lot. Just wait till you meet my mommy. She is the champion of all laughter.
Mommy loves to eat, just like me. We recently discover that we even like the same food, i.e. crabs. I could eat 2 kilos of crabs, so can mommy. Mommy enjoys a glass of wine once in a while. She likes dessert wine. Canadian ice wine is her favourite type of wine. She likes Bailey’s too.
And she will do anything you ask her to do.
Like posing with money *s*
♥
Finally, this is my little brother, Daniel.
I do not own many photos of him. He is camera-shy. I like this photo a lot because he had his hair cut really short for the first time and I think he looked good sporting the new haircut.
Daniel and I grew up having the same interest in languages without knowing it until now. We speak Malay to each other. It’s like we are speaking in codes although others around us do understand Malay.
He studies to become a journalist. And I, being a nerd as I was and am, picked a more practical subject so I could work in front a computer screen all day.
I think Daniel made a smarter choice.
♥
So there you have it.
My family.
*hugs*
i got lucky this year. my birthday fell on a saturday. it began with a sweet-looking boy with a lolly in his mouth waking me up with two eggs, two pieces of äntligen bread and a glass of milk.
(sorry about the quality – i wasn’t exactly awake)
then presents. note the lolly *s*
we decided to turn the light on. things started to become clearer.
and i got some pretty funky presents…
a blender (my electrical appliances wishlist) that has the funkiest dial.
a book about sixties design.
so that i could dream about living in one of these amazing spaces.
my favourite – kitchen hands! so that i could have an extra pair of big red hands when mixing my favourite green salad.
and also a pair of tretorn shoes which i swapped for a pair of acne jeans… (liked the shoes but l.o.v.e.d the jeans)!
then it was time to head to the city and drink some wine. i put on some clothes and put my hair up and i took a photo of myself in the mirror. *s*
we went to dunkers bar – watching the sky and the boats.
we were all tired. i had a cup of tea but He thought a beer would wake him up.
love was there too. and he loved the camera hehe (love is pronounced as loo-ve. a loovely name *w*)
then to bishop arms. it was empty.
we sat by these books – old encyclopedias and dictionaries and spent some time reading them out loud to each other.
then we met up with lisa and drank some wine.
she gave me two books and i became happy.
then we drank more wine…
and then we had the most delicious food at dahlberg’s but i was having too much fun to take more photos after that.
it was a nice 28th birthday.
hugs.
Filed under: Love
i turned 28 on 17.01.09. i had fun on my birthday *w*
hugs.
This is how I spent my Christmas holidays. Our little honeymoon. In Koh Lanta, Thailand.
Beach, beach, beach.
We ate crabs, prawns, squids and drank chang beers, mai tais, pina coladas, sweet martinis.
We played with the cutest monkey in the world…
Rode an elephant.
And the nights were filled with fire and lights.
Love Thailand.
