Julian's First Chinese New Year

It is Julian's first Chinese New Year... and here are some of his 'new' experiences...

1. He enjoyed receiving the ang pows - protesting occasionally when mummy/daddy took them away for safe-keeping ;-)

2. He sampled a variety of new tastes - kiwifruit, grape, egg yolk, ice-cream, keropok, bread and muffin.


[First Kiwifruit]


[First Ice Cream]

3. He climbed up the stairs in Menglembu.


[Climb every mountain...]

4. New Year, New Tooth... His second tooth emerged during this time, too... :-)


[Second Tooth]

Revelling in the Year of the Rat

We ushered in the Year of the Rat in Penang. Reunion dinner was at my 4th maternal grandaunt's with a gathering of about 25 family members. There were lots of food and fun. Yee Yee was back from Australia and Aileen managed to get leave to be around for the New Year celebrations. Yay :-) !

The first day of Chinese New Year saw us in church before doing the traditional 'new year rounds'. In the afternoon, we went to Butterworth to spend time at home.


[Fried Laver]


[Pig's Maw Soup]

The second day of Chinese New Year saw us back home in Menglembu. We visited Thai Gu in Air Kuning and Chia Poh in Pusing on the third day.


[Clockwise from top-left: Mooi Choy Kiu Nyuk, Mun Joo Nyuk (Stewed Pork), waxed meat, mixed vegetables, Zhar Nyuk (Deep Fried Pork)]


[Steamboat]

We returned to Penang on Sunday (4th day of CNY).

Chinese New Year 2008

Preparations for this Chinese New Year has been very minimal but we still look forward to the celebrations especially to meet up with family and friends.

Being the stingy prudent pair, we hardly bought anything except for a container of mini dried shrimp rolls for ourselves and some containers of meat-floss-filled love letter rolls to be given away. Not a single crate of mandarin oranges did we buy... shameful?... but we're proud of our miserly achievement (or the lack of it) :o).

Here's wishing you a Safe, Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year of the Rat from Angie, Julian and me.


[Unusual Orange: Not often do we find an imported mandarin orange with a leaf still on it]


["g" for Gong Xi Fa Chai: The letter "g" at g-Hotel with a cute hat on it]

The Oven Beckoned

Last Wednesday (30 Jan 2008), I had the (now) rare opportunity to prepare dinner. since I also have not had the chance to bake for a while, I decided to bake dinner - or at least one dish.

Check out our baked garlic cheese salmon...


[Baked Garlic Cheese Salmon]