Mrs. Chiam's first CNY ;)

Many has asked me how was my first CNY as Mrs. Chiam. I've been trying to write a post about this but it's really hard to find time to really sit down and work on it. So it's a month late. :P

On 20th Jan 2012, before Joshua and I drove back to Alor Setar. We met up with my friend who're close like family... :) Shin Wee and Shin Yee! :D
We were all in love with Nga Gu which Shin Wee said should be called Chi Gu.. anyhow it is definitely hard to resist.

They're a bunch of people that made me laugh non stop. :)
Jacky was sharing on how he survived for 4D3N in Pangkor Laut with no change of clothes at all because their maid forgot to pack his clothes. Classic!

And showed the Puah family our wedding video with my Blacky. ;) Even uncle and aunty Puah also give face. Hehehe..

Dinner with Puah family followed by healthy fruits and lavender tea.... Cute Shin Yee introduced us to her favourite pamelo!! Yummssss.. thank God we like different flavours, I can sapu all the sour ones which Shin Yee rejected. Haha.. After food, we then all participated in an exciting card game!

Highlight of the game was when I got a card to be a good guy but I forgot about it and played as a bad guy all the way!!! I was very confused with which to play, good or bad! I wish we get to hang out more like this. :) :) Reminds me a bit of our Grace College days.. hmm... thank God for both of you. :D

The next day (21st Jan 2012), Joshua and I travelled up north. My 1st CNY with Chiam family. It was okay, only the travelling part drove me crazy a little. We started out at 10.30am and arrived at 6.30pm. 8 hours in the car.... with few stops for toilet break and quick maggi cup lunch.. it's really annoying. Although I entertained myself by playing movies in Blacky.. watched 27 dresses and some episodes of FRIENDS, still the journey was annoying. 24th Jan we drove back to Subang, started out at 12.45pm.. and arrived back at 6.45pm. 6 hours in the car. -___- We have decided to fly next year.

Here's some pictures taken in Alor Setar and Penang. ;)

In Penang, Joshua's grandaunt's house. They sell laksa everyday.... all not married but adopted a son who helps them sell laksa. :) I was reminded how luxurious my life is when I enter their house.

We gave ang pows to all 3 of them here. And another non-blood related grandaunt which we didn't take picture of.

Back in Alor Setar, this is Joshua's dog Winnie.

This is the best Winnie could pose for Cammy.


The last evening there, we took a bike ride to the nearby paddy field for photo & video shoot. My favourite part in Alor Setar.

Honestly, I didn't know I had obvious dimples... from young my mum told me I have nice dimples whenever I smile but I never could see them myself in the mirror.... until few months back, I had a revelation in front of the mirror, I could finally spot my dimple! I always thought it's my cheek bone but oh no.. below my cheek bone is my dimple.. it's not deep but it's there! Amazing thing I found out it depends on how I smile or from which angle.. my dimple looks different. Anyway it's quite evident in this picture, hehe.

The sun was about to set..

We discovered the best way to capture the evening sun... as it sets..





After we're done with photos, Joshua went on to complete his mission. He wanted to test out his new toy - Monopod, which we call it Potty! :D

I was bored so I played with his iphone...

...and did this. :P


Bye bye Alor Setar!

On 25th Jan, we spend time with my mum and her siblings in Subang Jaya.. We had hok chew style lunch.. the red wine chicken with mee sua.. my mum cooked. :) Joshua helped out in the kitchen too. It was so fun. No picture was taken because we forgot about it. Usually when you having the best time, you just forget to snap! :(

Our mission, other than eating.. was to sort out all my grandfather's photoalbums.. and there were a whole mountain of it!! I was too task oriented and did not take pictures of the mountain. There were at least 50 photo albums to go through and I can't count how much photos there were... we divided all photos into different bags for the 8 siblings and a pile to scan, another pile of just my grandparents' photos. :)

Here's my cousin's youngest daughter Janice, a very pretty girl. :) She's eating near the area where the photos distributing factory was. Behind her (she's blocking) was one of the many piles of photo albums.

Here's the beginning part of the photos distributing activity. Major portion of photo albums were still upstairs.

This is my mum's eldest sister. Duai Ee. Behind her are some photo albums. :)

This is part of the write up about my greatgrandfather by my grandfather. I admire his neat hand writing.. he didn't need liquid paper or a type writer... very very impressed! :)

This is adorable Kathy. My cousin's eldest daughter. She likes to play the guitar while singing.. twinkle twinkle little star! She's standard 3 this year. ;)

And then Uncle Joshua demonstrated the right way to play guitar.


We worked until 12am! Joshua and I went to work the next day like zombie but it's worthwhile! I discovered great history about my great grandfather.... :) I will write it down when I have the time. ;)

About ang pows to younger ones, in Penang we only gave to one girl. Joshua doesn't have close relatives in Alor Setar. In Subang, we gave to my cousins' son and daughters, 3 in total. Then my cousin brothers and cousin sister, another 3. Of course I gave to my mum and my sister. :) That's all! :P Thank God not that many to give out to. Hehehe.

We took off on 27th Jan (Friday) and went back to Muar.. partly to spend time in Muar since it's still CNY, but for me it's more on completing the accounts for Year 2011. I rushed and rushed, when Joshua was opening hamper on the same table, I hardly even move my eye balls to peep at the goodies taken out of the hamper. I was really focused on getting things done! Even during dinner time, I brought Blacky to the restaurant, when they're ordering dishes, I was doing some intensed data entry.

We spent Saturday at home, where my mum cooks red wine chicken again for lunch. I can never have enough hehe. I glued myself to the dining table the whole time and aim to complete the accounts. Joshua helped my mum out in the kitchen and she suddenly talked about her pretty flowers in the garden, so we sent Joshua out to the garden to take some pictures of her favourite plant. Hehe. :D

We call this flower plant little birds, because it looks like many pink birds standing together. :D

Happpy flowers! Happy me!

So that pretty much sums up my first CNY as Mrs. Chiam. :)