YowCH & Grace

200224 to 28 CNY 2020

24 Jan 2020, New Year’s Eve

We drove back to PJ on 24 Jan (early morning) for CNY on 25 Jan. We started from home at 3:45am, reaching Singapore checkpoint at 4:05am. Took us 50 minutes to clear. At 5:00am, we reached the queue at the Malaysia checkpoint.

The queue took 3.5 hours to clear, at which in one period of 45 minutes, YowCH actually shut the car engine for 45 minutes!

For the first 27km of this trip, fuel efficiency was miserable. However, once we cleared the Malaysia checkpoint, traffic was heavy but moving smoothly. We even picked up speed to 160km/h at certain stretches. Unfortunately, we needed to rush, because the car aircon broke down, and the sun was up already.

We reached PJ home at 12:20pm, after a hot drive and we had lunch at home.

King crab from Yongs!

YowCH then took the car to Jalan Bahagia to try to fix the aircon, at a shop owned by Uncle Chua. The repair will take 2 days and needed parts, so it was not practical to repair.

We rested at home, then went to Giant for shopping. We had reunion dinner at hoe at 7:30pm.

We bought some ice-cream potong, including red bean flavour which is mom’s favourite.

We watched some movies on the TV and went to sleep at 11:15pm. Here’s mom’s photos corner.

25 Jan 2020, Chinese New Year Day 1.

YowCH woke a 5:30am and went for a run at 6:30am. It was a rather good run, in his new compression suit.

After the run and shower, we had simple breakfast at home at about 9:00am, then rested. Here’s mom with her home-made tablet stand for watching shows.

Esther and Samuel practiced piano on the keyboard that belongs to Yen Li.

Then we played mahjong!

at 12:00noon, we went to YowCH’s dad’s family at SS3 and had vegetarian lunch.

The atmosphere was joyful and cordial. We had fun catching up after almost 19 years of not meeting.

Esther, David and Joseph played mobile games with their cousin-uncles.

We returned home at about 3:30pm, and played mahjong again.

The Tans bought chendol and rojak, our usual CNY dessert.

YowCH worked on the old photos from SS3.

YowCH’s paternal grandfather and grandmother:

YowCH’s dad and siblings, around 1960:

After the passing of YowCH’s grandfather, Yow Pui Mun:

About 20 years ago:

Yongs and Loos arrived at about 4:00pm. The Yongs brought along a nangka, which Esther and YowCH opened.

Here’s mom preparing dinner.

The Loos brought yue-sang.

Our dinner spread and the lo-hei.

After dinner, we sat around and played mahjong. Then we went out to Kayu for supper (Chee Kean joined us).

We ate 3 roti tisu in addition to noodles and other food and drinks.

26 Jan 2020, Chinese New Year Day 2

YowCH woke at about 7:15am and decided to go for another run as there won’t be swim. Not as fast as the day before, but not too bad.

After the run and shower, YowCH set up the lights and living room for the annual family photos.

Mom’s portrait, dressed in her hand-made dress (made about 55 years ago).

Mom with her children:

With the children and spouses:

The entire family, we missed dad.

This is our family.

Other group photos:

YowCH and sisters Loon and Yan.

After taking photos, we went to Paradigm Mall for lunch at Home Noodle.

After lunch, we drove to YowCH’s uncle’s place at Kepong, reaching about 1:45pm. We had a fun time socialising.

As we were about to leave, Daren’s car couldn’t start, but we managed to use the Odyssey battery to jump start their car. They went out to get battery replacement before we headed home at about 4:50pm.

Mahjong again, while YowCH edited the group photos.

We had dinner at home at about 6:45pm, then rested and had some family time.

At 10:00pm, we went to Syed Abu for supper with the Tans. Sa some fire-works.

The satay was great!

27 Jan 2020, 3rd Day, Monday.

We went to Jin Xuan for dim sum breakfast at 8:15am.

Next was Midvalley Megamall for the Lego Rat Building Competition.

We arrived at 9:15am and waited for the place to open at 10:00am. We were the first in the queue.

We fielded 2 teams – Alpha with the strong players and Beta with the juniors and Grace.

Tam Alpha completed in 20m30s.

Team Beta couldn’t complete within 30 mins.

After a short while of shopping, team Alpha had another go at the competition. This time, 17m55s. If no one beats this time within this week, team alpha gets a bonus price!

The Chans joined us at Midvalley at about 11:30am. YowCH and Esther bought a guitar to play in PJ whenever we visit.

Lunch places were rather crowded, we ate at Papparich.

We left Midvalley at 2:45pm. the YowCH and Grace went to The Starling Mall for massage and shopping. At 6:35pm, we met the family at Awet for Thai food dinner.

After dinner, we returned home to pack our luggage. We then had cream-crepe cake for dessert before leaving PJ.

We drove off at 9:10pm, driving at night to avid the sun as the car had not aircon. We drove fast and smooth until Pagoh.

From Pagoh, the traffic was very slow. Not above 30km/h and many stretches of complete stop. It felt hot even in the cool of the night when the car was not moving.

Thankfully, the checkpoints were cleared in relatively good time (given CNY holiday). We reached Malaysia checkpoint at 2:25am, and cleared by 3:25am. We reached Singapore checkpoint at 3:30am and left at 4:05am.

We reached home safely (thank God) t 4:20am, quickly unloaded and slept at 5:25am.

28 Jan 2020, 4th Day.

YowCH woke at 7:30am to send the car to Honda for aircon repair. In the afternoon, YowCH visited a contractor’s home for their CNY party.

After the party, YowCH joined the rest of the family in Sorrento to have a CNY dinner with Grace’s parents and Gene. But first, we set up the studio lights and took our family photos:

Mom prepared a huge steamboat (mala) and hot pan dinner for us.

We had a hearty meal and we left and reached home about 10:00pm to prepare for school the next day.