Chinese New Year in Singapore (Eve - Day 3)

The Monday before Chinese New Year, William came down with "headache" (according to him) and fever.  Gave us a short scare as he has never complained of a headache or head pain before, and he's not one to cough up some drama to seek attention.  When we first heard of this, I brushed it off as his temperature was normal, but just to be on the safe side, I let him skip school the next day.

In the afternoon I had a scheduled appointment in Mont Kiara and was stucked in the afternoon traffic jam (in fact, traffic all around PJ has been heavy since a month before CNY for whatever reason).  Imagine my heart racing when my maid called to inform me that he felt feverish.

That night, we brought him to see our usual paediatrician who checked him to be normal.  Possibly viral and hopefully not due to visual.

Thank God the next day he recovered and was good for school.  He was happy to skip his Chinese tuition though!

Saturday, 9th February 2013 (Eve)

We locked up our house and made our way southbound to Singapore.  Mama Yeh Yeh left separately from Seremban but we met up at the Tuas rest stop for a snack before passing Immigration.  Traffic was generally smooth and we arrived our hotel before check in time.

This year, we decided to stay in a different hotel from the previous years.  Previously we have always  made Holiday Inn Atrium our temporary home in Singapore but this year, we booked into V Hotel due to its convenience of a MRT station just beneath it and independent shops and eateries outside.

I will do a brief review of the hotel later.

We managed to check in early at 1230pm into a triple room on the 5th floor but was later transferred to the 8th floor so that we can be on the same floor with MaMa Yeh Yeh and Yee Sok's family.   Our rooms were in all different corners but that proof to be no issue to the kids who happily race to MaMa Yeh Yeh's room whenever there's a chance.

I took no pictures of the room, because I forgotten and also because the picture in the hotel website is all there is to see  (hint:  small).

We had time to bath the kids, put them to sleep, catch a quick nap myself before bathing and leaving to TaiPo (great grandma)'s place.  We are having homecooked for Reunion dinner!

MaMa Yeh Yeh brought down soy sauce pork belly and pork stew.  We brought down a huge frozen 7 star garoupa fish cut into half, for steaming.  TaiPo showed us her "la sau" and I picked up some secret recipes.  ; )  I brought down my tong sui which I aptly call, the "8 Treasure" as it contained 8 items.  Sugarless but sweet enough to sweetened the Reunion.  Glad everyone enjoyed it.

Sadly, as we were all busy eating, I forgotten to snap pictures...

At night, we had a Family Movie Night in the hotel room.  We joined both the single and double bed together, and the four of us huddled together watching The Pirates!  Band of Misfits.

Finally, a show that none of us have watched before instead of the millionth times of repeats.  In this show, Queen Victoria was the "bad guy." Hehehe... a nice movie with light English accents.


Sunday, 10th February (Day 1)

We went down for breakfast at the Kopitiam (foodcourt) before doing our customary pai nin with Mama Yeh Yeh in their hotel room.  Kids love this time of fooling around with the camera, monkeying around the room (applicable to William and Theodore) and of course, receiving angpows.  Ahhh.... they are only this young once!

As our hotel did not invite lion dance, we headed back to Holiday Inn Atrium to catch the lion dance at 10am.  We arrived 15 minutes late and hubby blamed it on the speed limit on the highway... hehe!  (It's CNY but the cameras are still working, and don't play play when you are in Singapore where the currency exchange rate is 2.5 times more!)

Catching the last 15 minutes of the lion dance... it was WORTH IT!

William touched the baby lion

Something something something

Posed beside the two lions

The kids (others as well) found joy in stroking, touching, jabbing and teasing the lions on the grounds.  William have no fear, whereas the sister maintains her distance

Kids enjoyed picking up gold coins.  Good thing both their shirts have got pockets!

See Daddy and William's shirt?  They are both the same pattern!  Mummy buy one.  : )

A picture with the Choy San

Our tradition on the first day every year is to visit Tai Po at her flat and spend half a day there.  During this time, all the other aunties will drop by to visit with their children (now all adults).  We have our usual simple pai nin of good wishes, lunch, giving of angpows to whoever still unmarried and chit chats.  The kids busied themselves with ipads, iphones and tv.

Look!  Vic cooking, for real ok?!  She's standing on a stool and frying her very own fried rice... with help from Taipo

Why is the normally smiley boy so gloomy in this picture?  I guess that's coz I paused him from cookies or ipad for this pose with Uncle Reyna in yellow (yes, Uncle, no joke!) and cousin Theodore in red. 

Balancing a mandarin orange on his hand... he goes, "Look, Mummy!" and I say, "Quick, smileeee!!"

In the afternoon while I put William to sleep, Vic sneaked out for a swim with Yeh Yeh at the hotel pool.  I did not check out the pool but I heard it's nothing to shout about - they don't even have a kiddy pool!  At night, we went to Changi Airport for dinner and walk around.

And I'm amazed by him... how does he learn how to hold the elderly's hands? 

I like this toothless pic of Vic... after 6 months still no sign of new teeth

Kids playing around the Angry Bird play area. 

Monday, 11th February (Day 2)

Today we have lunch at 5th Aunt's house in Tampines.  Another round of lou sang which me and the kids love (although Vic can only nibble on selected parts) and Daddy takes a little, out of courtesy because this lucky man has been lou sang-ing non stop even before CNY! 

At night, we ate at the food court near Bugis area, a familiar place to TaiPo.  I saw couples eating a huge plate of yee sang as their main and only course!  Wow!  Singaporeans are really into yee sang!  The yee sang stall even had a queue of eager patrons.

Bonding time!

Tuesday, 12th February (Day 3)

Today most stalls reopen and we had a different kind of breakfast instead of the noodles at the Kopitiam.  We bought some buns (SGD1.5 each) and pork chop rice (SGD2) and ate in our room so we can multitask packing.

We checked out nearing 11:30am and headed out of Singapore.  For lunch, we stop over at Yong Peng and ate a hearty meal of steamed fish teowchew style, signature dish fried mee hoon, mee sua soup, etc and enjoyed their freshly blended pineapple, soursop and pineapple mix passion fruit!

Traffic was heavy after Yong Peng and not because of any major accidents, it was because of the number of vehicles travelling back into the city.

Knocked out!

We arrived Seremban slightly past 5pm, rested and then headed out for dinner with Popo Gong Gong at Kong Ming Restaurant in town, where a reservation was made earlier by Gong Gong.

We had the group package, comprising of the usual lou sang, prawns, fish, braised beancurd, etc...

At Popo Gong Gong's house, we have our very own baby lion show... hahaha!!  The kids took turns wearing the lion head and peeling real Mandarin oranges.

That's all for Eve to Day 3!  More to come on CNY... Gong Xi Gong Xi to everyone.  Wishing you a year of good health and God's abundance blessing.