Year End Visit

Sat 2 Dec 2023

Parents were in town for their end of the year visit. We had lunch at Nu Sentral consisting of assam laksa, curry bee hoon, bak kut chicken and cendol at Penang Cendol. The bak kut dish was tasteless, a bad rendition of a promising dish. This sentence is inspired by watching episodes from Season 12 to 15 of one of my favourite show, Masterchef Australia.

Sun 3 Dec 2023

We went over to Bangsar South to have lunch at Public House. Was planning on having the set lunch of fish & chips but unfortunately this was not available on a weekend. We had pasta, nachos and hokkien mee instead. 

We were reminded that Christmas is just around the corner and took some pictures with the festive Christmas tree as the backdrop.

Wed 6 Dec 2023

Bikia and parents visited the newly opened TRX building.

Fri 8 Dec 2023

The food and sight-seeing tour continues with a visit to Lot 10 for lunch consisting of hokkien mee and hor fun, and a visit to Pavillion after lunch.

Sat 9 Dec 2023

We decided to visit the Japanese Garden at Shah Alam, Section 14. With 2 wedding shoots and graduation picture taking in progress while we were there, it's clearly a popular spot for scenic photos.

Sun 10 Dec 2023

We had dim sum lunch at Oriental Treasure, Bangsar South. For dessert, we went to Tongkat Nyonya for cendol and cucur udang. Needless to say no one went hungry during this year end trip.

River & Rain

River and Rain's school fall photos are out and they look quite grown up.

River is in 5th grade and Rain is in 2nd grade.

Here are the kids when they are not in school.

River and her soccer team celebrate a win on 9 April.

River at a banquet organized by her school, soccer coach and parents on 13 May

With their medals on 6 May

Whitecap Beach, Corpus Cristi on 5 June

Rain with his new glasses on 8 July

Rain on his birthday 16 Sept

August

Thurs 10 Aug 2023

We went out in the afternoon. After dropping Beh Ling off at the Plaza 333 gym, Bikia, mummy and I went to the Balai Seni Lukis near to Taman Rimba (my usual jogging spot). Entrance fee is RM5 and free for mummy. It’s a small art gallery and worth a short visit. After that we headed over to the State Library, at the other end of Taman Rimba.

Sat 12 Aug 2023

We went to Imago in the morning for a short shopping trip before picking up aunty Su Lee from church for lunch at the Club. As usual, she was regaling us with her childhood tales. There are 2 sets of twins in her family so they were famous in Kudat. Aunty Su Lee herself is a twin but her twin sister died in the womb as no one knew her mother was carrying twins and thought her delivery was complete when aunty Su Lee was born. 

For the next pregnancy, her father told the nurse to check if there is a second baby and sure enough, there were 2 (boy & girl). 

Aunty Su Lee's father used to play football at Jesselton Club (now the Kinabalu Club). He was killed during the Japanese occupation in 1943.  

As a single mother with 5 children, her mother decided to move the family to Kuching where she knew the school principal. The school took in the children and they had school shoes for the first time in their life. They were only wearing wooden clogs before that. 

We also heard tales of hopeless Hope, her first tenant. She was a talented linguist and a trained nurse who worked in Hong Kong before becoming a missionary in Sabah. She was able to pick up the local Kadazan, Dusun dialects and translated the Bible into local languages. However, for tea time, she ate aunty Su Lee’s biscuits and never offered to buy any for her. Every Christmas, she ordered 20 calendars and gave one to aunty Su Lee. She knew what her gift would be without having to open the present, she said.

May Visit

Parents were in town for 3 weeks and Beh Ling flew down from Singapore for a short trip. 

Mon 22 May 2023

We headed to Lot 10 food court for lunch consisting of hokkien mee and curry bee hoon before having fancy (expensive) waffles for dessert. 

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Thurs 25 May 2023

Bikia and parents drove down to Taiping and stayed overnight at uncle Nam's house. The next day, they had lunch at Ipoh before driving back to KL.

Sat 27 May 2023

Abikia cooked laksa with bihun, using the laksa packet which Beh Ling brought to KK for CNY. I took it back to KL as we would be meeting up in May. However, we made the mistake of putting in the noodles too early and it soaked up all the gravy.

Sun 28 May 2023

We were at Bandar Botanic at 5 PM for family gathering with our uncles and aunties. We had delicious bah kut teh dinner with 2nd and 7th uncle, cooked by aunty Jane. Aunt Jessie bought mangoes for us.

Tues 30 May 2023

Bikia and parents were at Bukit Bintang City Centre LaLaport, a new shopping mall near to Hang Tuah monorail station.

Sat 3 June 2023

We had a sumptuous lunch at New Palm Grove, Klang with 2nd, 3rd, 6th & 7th. uncle and 2nd & 5th aunty. Aunty Jessie and cousin Yi Ling were part of 7th uncle's entourage.

After lunch, aunty Jessie invited us to her house at Kampung Jawa. It’s a big house with a nice garden. While we were there, she had her weekly video call with Shou Xian who is working in Japan. We also had a leisurely chat with Yi Ling, who is working as an auditor at PWC. She said it was a stressful life.

Sun 4 June 2023

We visited Uncle Bala’s bungalow at 11, Jalan Padang 4/48, PJ. Aunty Ray has a live-in gardener to look after her garden and a maid to help with household work. The house is huge and has been extensively renovated. Looking forward to more visits in the future as both of them are very generous and kind-hearted. Needless to say, aunty Ray's lunch was delish.

Mon 5 June 2023

We went to Bukit Jalil Pavilion for lunch. It wasn't easy getting a parking spot as it's a public holiday today. We had to drive down 3 levels before finding a parking spot. We ate at the food court and it’s not cheap (RM14.50 for prawn mee, RM22 for yong tau foo). For dessert, we decided to have 2 bowls of cendol (RM7.90 each) at Penang Cendol.

April Birthday

Fri 7 April 2023

It’s Good Friday public holiday in KK. We went for church service at 1 PM and then went to Berries to get rose & lychee cake for mummy’s birthday. It's not a coincidence that this is currently my favourite cake. Before heading to Gaya Street for dinner at Rokuzen, we had our photoshoot session at Sutera Harbour. 

After dinner, we took photo at home with the birthday cake and surprisingly, we managed to finish the 0.5 kg cake. We started watching True Beauty using Bikia’s Netflix account. It turned out to be very addictive and we continued watching it the next few days.

Mon 10 April 2023

We had dinner at Wong Kok, Luyang consisting of toufu, vegetables, beef and yam basket, my favourite dish.