Chinese New Year 2022

So I realise that this blog is basically dead, but I still quite like the idea of having something to look back on from time to time, so I’m going to keep posting here whenever I feel like it. I am pretty sure I’m the only person who sees whatever I post anyway 😂

I recently lost all the contents of my hard disc, my newest one which had the backup of my older stuff and which itself wasn’t backed up anywhere, so I basically lost all my photos from the past 10 years or so 😭

So I have decided to abandon my last post draft (which was supposed to be “2019 in Pictures” by the way haha) and just move on with the present.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

The CNY festivities started with a CNY dinner with some of my colleagues. I was told to wear red or risk being kicked out of the room, but me being me, I didn't have any red shirts so I wore a shirt with a tiger on it (hey it is the year of the tiger okay, I get points for effort) and a pair of maroon pants. Thankfully I wasn't the only one who didn't adhere to the dress code!

Colleagues CNY!
L-R according to positions of heads haha: Wong LY, Karen, Sharon (and husband), Chiu Xian, me, Swee Miaw, Michelle, Kong, Angela, Goh JY (in his mustard yellow shirt), Wan-Yi 

I hate COVID and how it made it next to impossible for koko to come home this CNY even though we all managed to get approved long leave (like proper slightly more than week-long off kind of leave) but noooooo, we couldn't get tickets for koko to come home so he ended up cancelling his CNY leave. That was the blergh part of this year's CNY, so hopefully this year is the last one we'll have to celebrate away from koko! 

Mandatory self-testing before going home 

My loves!

After not really going out much for so long, it was kind of nice to eat out/meet up with some people we hadn't seen for so long. Kinda nice yes, kinda scary definitely haha #stayhomegang

Dinner at Aroy Tomyum - after Aunty Yng Yng told us the food there was good, we went the same night. Quite nice! And we went early so we managed to beat the crowd hohoho

Met up with a few TIGS friends. Actually it was more like I crashed their class reunion so I really have to thank them for letting a Neptunian invade their Earthling meet-up!

Bumi friends (with a Neptunian invader)
L-R: Wan Yi, Ruby, me, Susin, Anlynn, Jing Xin, Pey Yann, Charmaine

So from there it was non-stop eating under the guise of "reunion meals". The Chong Clan had our reunion in Muar this year, we booked a house somewhere in Bakri and all stayed there for a night. That was quite fun, although I did really really really acutely feel the absence of Ah Chiah this year. I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

Chong Clan "ang ang bo hai lang"

As usual, we did mum's side of the family's celebrations in JB. This year the Singapore group couldn't come back, so it was just the 9 of us - 4 Chongs, 3 Kohs, 2 Chuas. Since niko and I wanted to spend a bit more time back home in BP, we came home on the 2nd day of CNY itself, and the rest came for a day trip the next day.

The first CNY dinner I think we've ever all been able to sit down together at the table

Dinner at a fully-booked Chok Dee. We were the first people there, arriving right as they got prepared to open for the evening, and so we managed to finish our meal just as the crowd started arriving.

Spending more time in BP also meant that we could make it for a meal at the Chen household. Aunty Evelyn's home-cooked Nyonya food is the bestttttt!

Just some of the many dishes Aunty Evelyn cooked for us - so prettily set up too! 

When I say homecooked, I mean homecooked. Even the Pai Tee shells were homemade!

Of course, in true Aunty-Evelyn-is-definitely-one-of-the-top-5-cutest-people-on-earth style, after we thought we were done with dinner and were already so full, she went "Alamak! Forgot one more dish!" and then she brought out asam fish. Of course we couldn't say no to that! And then when we were done with the fish, she suddenly remembered the itek tim she had just sitting in the kitchen as well hahaha 

The rest of the holiday was spent just doing what we do best - eating, sleeping, and watching TV (in no particular order). Any time spent with family is the best, and would have been perfect if koko could have made it home. Well, next time, hopefully!

Brunch at Coffee in Town

So it's back to reality tomorrow. The break was nice while it lasted. Now to restart the mental countdown to the next off-day/holiday! 

I'm gonna end this post with a picture of a plate of mochi because mochi is the bane of niko's and my existence in the the kitchen. A few years back we first tried making mochi and they came out the consistency of little golf balls. We just couldn't seem to make mochi right no matter what recipe we tried. This year, somehow mummy bought a packet of premixed mochi flour from Bake with Yen and so we finally got a batch of mochi that actually has the consistency of mochi (if use until premixed flour already still can fail then really habis lah). That being said, now that we have (arguably) succeeded in making mochi once, I doubt we'll ever attempt it again. Like I always say, one of the best things about living in Malaysia is how easy it is to find food and how affordable food generally is. C'mon lah, why risk creating more golf ball mochis when we can easily just go out and buy some? Or better yet, just order some and get them delivered right to our doorstep!

Finally, mochi! There are like 4 different flavours of inti on this plate but nope, nobody knows which is which hahaha

Happy CNY everyone!