Archive for » 2008 «

December 29th, 2008 | Author: gabriel

Being in Singapore when no one’s is really depressing. Makes you feel real lonely and the only way to ‘mask’ this emotion is by keeping oneself busy; by being consumed with work, indulging in movies/games but deep down, it longs for company – family and friends.

To make matters worse, this song was humming in my head. I don’t know what the title is but I found a youtube video of it based on my vague memory of it lyrics. It made me feel more homesick.. =/

Guess it’s just the post Christmas blues. How we tend to lose the spirit of Christmas as we grow older. I used to look forward towards Christmas so much but it’s fading as the years pass…

Lyrics
christmas…
isn’t christmas…
till it happens…
in your heart…
somewhere… deep inside you…
is where christmas really starts…

so, give your… heart to people…
you’ll discover when you do…
that it’s christmas… really christmas… for you!

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December 28th, 2008 | Author: gabriel

My family started off Christmas by attending church at midnight and after that, a meal of fruit cakes and red win.

Rose Wine
Rose Wine (by P3rSeUs)

Fruit Cake
Fruit Cake (by P3rSeUs)

Then, fast forward to lunch! Previous years, we’ll be having an open house party but this year, we’ll just have lunch in the comfort of our home. My 2nd sister’s husband cooked his baba nonya dishes for us!

Pork Meat (by P3rSeUs) Tofu (by P3rSeUs) Vegetables (by P3rSeUs)

And I also prepared a few dishes myself, with the help of my gf and mum

Fried Wan Ton (by P3rSeUs) Fried Beancurd Skin (by P3rSeUs)

Xmas Lunch (by P3rSeUs)
There was also a fish that I forgot to shoot cause was too hungry that time. =/

Afternoon was spent lazing around at home with my family. Went to survey restaurants for dinner and to the bercham house. Had our dinner at a western restaurant (Citrus) which used to be where Antap Cafe was. The ambience there was good but the service wasn’t up to the standard.

Moving on, night time!! It’s been a tradition for my family to open our presents on the night of Christmas. Every year, we’ll have one or two guests who’ll join us in this ‘ceremony’.

The german family
The German Family (by P3rSeUs)

Yin Sin aka Little Sophie
Yin Sin and Ashley (by P3rSeUs)

My brother’s girlfriend, Jessie in HK and her mum
Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

The presents under the christmas tree are distributed by my two nieces to all of us.

Xmas Tree (by P3rSeUs)

Then all of us, one by one, from the youngest to the oldest will open their presents in front of everyone else.

Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

See the amount of presents that I have on the right? And the amount of presents that Yin Sin has in front of her? She almost has more than me! :P

Hence, the opening of presents begin! Since there are tons of pictures there, I’ll not post them here but you can view them at this link

But here are some highlights!
We have things from

Bags
Grace and her bag (by P3rSeUs) Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

I.O.U. Air Asia Vouchers
Air Asia Vouchers (by P3rSeUs)

100 year old Rosary from Jerusalem
Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs) Rosary (by P3rSeUs)

Leather shoes from Munich
Shoes (by P3rSeUs)

Apron and Cheong Sam
Equipping her presents (by P3rSeUs)

Ships
Ships (by P3rSeUs)

Estee Lauder Cosmetics
Cosmetics (by P3rSeUs)

Snowman
Snowman (by P3rSeUs)

Scarfs
Scarfs (by P3rSeUs)

Books
Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs) Digital Travel Photography Book (by P3rSeUs)

Mobile Phone
New Nokia Phone (by P3rSeUs)

After our opening of presents, we had turkey!

Carsten’s dad, Raner showed us the proper way to cut a turkey.

Cutting the turkey (by P3rSeUs) Christmas 08 (by P3rSeUs)

And we had that together with red wine!

Category: christmas, family, fun, holidays  | Tags:  | Leave a Comment
December 25th, 2008 | Author: gabriel

Christmas Tree (by P3rSeUs)

Christmas Tree in my house decorated by yours truly… :P

This year’s  christmas celebration is different from other christmas from the past few years. The past decades or so, my family will be having a open house party where my family will cook and anyone can just come to our house for christmas.. This year will be a slightly relaxing christmas. No christmas party, just a warm cosy christmas by the fireplace at home. Another way it’s different is that my 3rd sister is not around and there are additional members to the ‘party’; my sister’s boyfriend and his parents all the way from Germany and my girlfriend, Yin Sin from Alor Setar.

Even my Ipoh friends are not around. No more after christmas mass ritual of going around the church looking for friends wishing them a Merry Christmas cause well, most of them are not around. No more late night outings after church where we’ll chat till the wee mornings. No more screamings and shoutings on Christmas morning hurrying people to wake up to prepare food for lunch.

But one thing still remains; a family spending time together on Christmas day with their loved ones. Can’t wait for tonight where we’ll be opening our Christmas presents! =)

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December 21st, 2008 | Author: gabriel

Every year, my family will celebrate ‘guo tong’ or better known as the winter celebration. It has the shortest day in a year and somehow, Chinese people will make ‘tang yuan’ to celebrate this ‘festive occasion’. I’ve been wondering many years.. Why do we need to celebrate the start of winter?? Here are some excerpts that I found on the web:

There may be two reasons why the Chinese hold celebrations on this day. One, is that after a hard working year, farmers always take a rest to enjoy their bountiful harvest. The second reason has to do with the theory of Yin and Yang. In Chinese philosophy, Yin symbolizes the feminine and negative qualities of the universe while Yang the masculine and positive. It is dialectical and dynamic in a sense. When something has reached one extreme, it will turn to the oposite. On the day of the Winter Solstice, the Yin is at its peak with the longest night. From then on, it will give way to the light and warmth of Yang. And the Chinese consider it a right time for optimism and joy.

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa122200a.htm

Oh well, all I know is.. on that day I have to wake up early in the morning to make tang yuan. The more I make, the more money I’m supposed to make over the next year… =/ Over the past few years, I have the help of my sisters to make all these tang yuan; waking up at 6-7am and over the years, we’ve been waking up later and later. This year, it’s only me and my mum who made the tang yuan and we only started at 9am (cause I couldn’t wake up) haha…

Then we’ll have sumptuous meals over lunch/dinner. This year, we had a whole chicken, fish, duck, vege(s) and soup and we invited family friends over for lunch. I had my fair share for lunch. Home cooked food is always the best!

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December 18th, 2008 | Author: gabriel

On my previous post, I mentioned that I am going to upload pictures that was taken during a photo shoot at Fort Canning Park. Well, here it is! Photos are ‘developed’ and each of us are to submit 10 photographs back to the models.

As mentioned, there are 3 models and the theme is supposedly to be gothic. However, I really have no idea how gothic pictures should look like so….. I just produce something that I think is reasonable

Adeleen (by P3rSeUs) In agony (by P3rSeUs)Adeleen (by P3rSeUs)

Mohd Hariz (by P3rSeUs)Mohd Hariz (by P3rSeUs)Just waiting.... (by P3rSeUs)

Catherine (by P3rSeUs)

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