YowCH & Grace

We had our Chinese New Year holiday from 7 to 12 Feb this year with CNY falling on 10 and 11 Feb. We planned to leave Singapore on Thursday, so Esther and David skipped school on 7 and 8 Feb.

After work on Wednesday 6 Feb, we slept early and woke up at 4:00am on 7 Feb to drive back to PJ. Yan and Si Wan were with us.

The checkpoints on both Singapore and Malaysia were empty. You can see that the road was also rather empty and we reached Subang at about 8:00am. With the morning traffic in PJ/KL, we took about 1 hour to reach home rather than 10 mins when the traffic is free. We should have woken up an hour earlier.


After unloading our luggage, we walked out to the shops for roti canai (prata) and nasi lemak.

After breackfast, YowCH popped into T.Y.Lin KL office for a while and met some of the guys there.
This is our lunch that mum prepared. You’ll see lots of home food in this CNY trip page.

We then visited One-Utama for some shopping and to pick up PQ and Siu Hei from their bus terminal at Bandar Utama. Then we had dinner at home with Loon & Daren and the Loos.



Later that night, YowCH met Chee Kean with David and Joseph for supper.

On Friday 8 Feb morning, we celebrated dad’s birthday (actual day 6 Feb). This is the family photo.

Here are all the juniors in the house.

We then had a very late lunch or early dinner at about 4:00pm.


That night, we visited Uncle at Kepong, and met Wei Yeu and Wei Lian (who came back from Taipei with his family).

After visiting Uncle, we met up with Chee Kean again for supper.

The next morning 9 Feb, YowCH helped Yen Yen take photos of his artwork for digital record.

Then we visited KL Tower. Traffic was fantastically free as most KL-PJ people (Chinese and other races) have already shut down their businesses and left town.




This is one of T.Y.Lin KL’s projects, Berjaya Times Square.


The roads are really empty!


With clear skies, we can even see Genting Highlands.

This limestone out-crop is where Batu Caves is situated.

The shadow of the KL Tower top (where we are) is cast over Convent Bukit Nanas.


We then got home for lunch.

After lunch, we drove Yan and family to PQ’s home in Kajang. As the traffic was very light, we needed only 25 mins to reach Kajang. WE sat around for a while, then drove back to PJ.

Reaching PJ, we met with Chee Kean and Ming Meng at Kelana Old Town, and then shopped for a while at Giant before going home for reunion dinner.


After dinner, we had some good family time. Esther and David helped prepare the ginkgo nuts for tomorrow’s vegetarian stew.

10 Feb, first day of CNY. We gave Esther, David and Joseph each a really small angpow of RM1.10 each. Well, additionally, we also gave then each an iPod4 (bought from second hand shop).

Mum ran out of curry powder, so we drove out to buy some at Giant. Here’s Grace scooping the vegetarian stew for lunch.

And this is the vegetarian lunch for first day of the new year.

After lunch we went visiting, mostly with Grace driving as YowCH was down with a cold. We visited Chee Kean’s parents, the Chims, and Daren’s mother.

Then we drove Loon and Daren back with us and had dinner at home, followed by Mahjong.


At 10:00pm, we drove out for supper with Chee Kean, Thean Seong, Sri, the Chims and Loon & Daren.

On second day of CNY 11 Feb, we visited Chee Kean and Ming Meng’s place in the morning. David had a swell time with the dog, Chaco (edited from “Charcoal”).

Then lunch.

Then Chin Bin (YowCH’s ex-colleague) visited. And then dinner.


After dinner, Chee Kean & Ming Meng came to our place, followed by the Lims and Loos.

We then did our final packing and loaded the car to return to Singapore and slept early at about 10:30pm.

The next morning 12 Feb, we woke at 4:00am and loaded the children into the car. We then left for Singapore, starting at 4:35am with Grace driving. We started early to avoid the expected massive jam as Singapore starts work tommorrow on 13 Feb.

After the 90km/h stretches, YowCH took over the wheel at Kampong Bemban.


The road was very empty and we reached home at 8:20am, running only about 10 to 15 km/h above speed limit. The checkpoints were still empty and we crossed both Malaysia and Singapore customs in 7 minutes!

We then met up with Grace’s parents for brunch, followed with shopping at Suntec City, then we visited Kuan Pow and Patricia from 2:30pm until 5:00pm, washed the car at Caltex and returned to Moh Guan for dinner.

A wonderful CNY for us, and we thank God for His blessings upon us and upon our family and friends.

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