Being the practical and budget couple, very rare we splurge on a fancy dinner. Trust me, I can count the number of times with my fingers! So a romantic dinner was planned at House @ Dempsey. First for us to have dinner at Dempsey. He loves the decor at House, but the food was alright. Favourite were the DIY skinny pizza and truffle fries (Clifford’s fries were better though).

Just a quiet night alone. Only for couple hours, but I like it how its just us.

Happy 7th Year Anniversary Abang! MUACK!

Flashback from 2004…

2005…

2006…

2007…

2008…

2009…

2010…

Looks as though we’re getting younger right? LOL! That’s us, getting older, whackier and even more loving than the day before! With many more years to come… Journey with Yusri and Claudia continues…

Ah Ma and Gonggong at Ah Ma’s Birthday

When I was a child, Gonggong would bring me out every Sunday to either my favorite arcade at Thomson Plaza or Parkway Parade, or he would bring me shopping with Ah Ma. Gonggong would buy me things when I behaved myself or did well in school.

I remember Gonggong bringing home chinese herbs and tonic for us. He would feed me with my favorite food, and buy me my favorite “piglet” biscuit during Mooncake festivals. Gonggong always showered my cousins, brother and me with love, care and lots of warmth.

I cannot recall when it happened, but one day I was just told that he had moved back to his daughter’s place. And we were not allowed to visit him. (It’s complex and I don’t want to talk about this.)

So after few years, we got a chance to finally visit him after his operation. That was the last time we saw him.

On 9 January, 2005. It was our secret visit.

For the past years, the only updates we get about Gonggong is through Ah Ma. She would try to call him in the afternoon when the family is out, and he would be able to talk to Ah Ma. He had asked about us often too. He did care and think about us though we didn’t get to meet nor talk. However, these calls decreased over the years, and Ah Ma didn’t hear from him for some time.

On Tuesday, 23 Feb 2010, Ah Ma gave the house a call, but to hear the maid break the news that Gonggong had passed away a year ago. She didn’t know what to say, and hung up. Dad called me when I was in the office and told me about it over the phone. It took me a few seconds to register what he said, and I couldn’t hold back my tears. Fortunately, Abang was there with me that day, I had someone to hold and hug while I cry my heart out.

The news came unexpected and so sudden. And it was more than a year ago when he left us. We weren’t told nor were we given the chance to see him one last time. After the news sank in, I tried to find out what happened.

Called the house on Wednesday and was told Gonggong passed away in Nov 2009. And an approximate place where they’d gotten for his final resting place. With Ben’s help, we looked through rolls of microfilm at the National Library that day, trying to find his obituary notice. But we found nothing.

On Saturday, 27 Feb 2010, I decided to give the columbarium, near the place I was told, a try. Hoping to pay my respect. Didn’t know the exact date of his departure, and with the PC down when I was there, the person in-charge there couldn’t help locate the unit for his urn. I went round hoping to find Gonggong’s photo amongst the many urns there. It was an emotional search.

With Gonggong’s guidance, I found him. Resting peacefully on the second row of his block (G). I checked his name and photo several times, making sure I found the right one. And then I saw the date. He departed on 23 Nov 2008. That was much longer ago. I spent some time talking to him and my tears just kept flowing uncontrollably. I apologized for knowing this only now. I was sad.

I told myself that he is now at a better place, with no pain nor sorrow. He is at peace now. And I believe he is happy, now that his family (us) found him.

We will be holding a prayer ritual for him soon. That’s what Ah Ma said she’ll do when Gonggong visited her in her dream one night. We need to give a proper closure for Gonggong. He is part of our family and the only Gonggong we all know.

Gonggong, you are in a better place now. And I believe you have always and will always be there watching over us. Rest in peace.

Revisiting from 2005… the amount of things in my room was crazy ok! And there are many colors on my wall and many many damaged paint (holes) too.

Then in 2007, the mess was still as bad. I’m a trash collector you see. Everything also must keep!

Operation Groom My Room Day 1

Operation Groom My Room wasn’t a planned battle. My initial plan was just to de-clutter and throw out as much unwanted stuff as possible over couple of days. So last week, I spent a day clearing 1/4 of my room. Then last Friday night, I started clearing the other 1/4 of the room. It was that night where my dad came in and saw the badly damaged painted walls and volunteered to help me refresh my 11year room with new coat of paint. (Painting my room was the very last thing I want to do as I really really have LOTS of things!!) But dad kept pushing for me to paint it, comparing my room with the rest of the house. So I decided to take up his offer. That was the beginning of Operation GMR.

So my plan changed that night (on Friday). Saturday throw out everything (unwanted) in room and keep things in boxes/ bags for easy move-out to living room on Sunday for the painting work. At 11.30am Saturday, my dad called, “Clear your room now. Later I come back paint liao!” *shocked* *speechless* How can I possible clear out the things by 4pm when he returns? No time was wasted, with Abang help, we managed to throw most stuff and shift all out of my room before dad comes home.

So the rest of the day was spent waiting while dad painted my room. When its finally done, I’m loving the color and am very grateful he persuaded me to paint it. Just when we were clearing up, dad decided to do the most amazing thing… to straighten my wardrobe (which I’d no idea that it was slanted). The already weakened and badly depreciated wardrobe, with few strong pushes and readjustment, it decided to speed up its depreciation period within that 15 minutes. There! Gone! It threatened to fall onto me while I sleep every night. Not wanting to die in the middle of sleep, I had to get a new wardrobe! (As if I’ve not already burned a big hole in my pocket with the recent 2x birthdays and 1x wedding!)

Operation Groom My Room Day 2

Couldn’t sleep in the highly dangerous room I was in the night before. Woke up at 8am on a Sunday (sooooo rare!!) and off we went to Ikea at 9.30am to get me a new wardrobe. Cash and carry the huge 236.5cm wardrobe in dad’s van back home.

With dad out for the rest of the afternoon, brave mom and I went ahead to clear my wardrobe, move my mattresses and bed frame out of the room and tearing the wardrobe down on our own. The process, a sweaty, dangerous and dirty one. Everything was cleared out of my room within couple of hours. Pretty amazing what my mom and I are capable of doing. Ha!

The assembling process began immediately when dad returned around 4pm. With three of us working together, we carried the heavy wooden board into the room, hammered, screwed, hammered again and put the 2 frames together. Then came the interior assembling and finally the 3 huge doors and handles. The wardrobe was up by 6.30pm. Cleaned up the room, moved my clothes back into the new wardrobe and left the rest lying around to be continued after dinner.

Worked through the night on Sunday to unpack the stuff from the living room, throw away even more stuff and changed the bed sheet, showered and finally got to see my 90% cleared room by 3am.

All these hard work and time spent, what did I get?

A better living and working space! Hope this will aid in providing me a better health too, since air is cleaner and less cluttered in my room now. Presenting my freshly groomed room… (Please take note of the above mess and condition and compare it ok?)

From entrance of my room

My new wardrobe! Though painful on my wallet, but I loves it!

Now I can sleep in peace

TV, Fan and Clock corner

The corner which I still find very messy, but at least MUCH better than before.

Where I’m sitting right now while typing this long long post.

Now that I’m facing the window while I work at night, I think I breathe in much cleaner air as compared to the past where I faced the wall. Helps think better too (I think!). LOL!

Parents, Abang and brother all agreed that the room now is much much neater and brighter and cleaner! I think so too! Now I’ve to ensure that I stop buying any more things to add mess again. Looking at the bank account now, I think this room will remain as it is for quite a long while. Ha!

Finally, I just have one thing to say…

Found my discman from secondary school days

And its still working!!!

I.am.amazed!

Operation Groom My Room a Great Success!!! YEAH!

Its been way too long since I did so much scrapping. Having started it, I kinda miss those days where I scrap almost everyday. Lost touch a little, but I’m quite happy with the layouts I’ve completed.

Here are some of the layouts which I like from the album…

Look How I Grow

Love Beyond Measure

Family Bliss

Come Travel With Me

Pretty In Red

Hope she’ll like her album. And hope I’ll have more chances to scrap. Keeps chanting… “Work can never be finish. Work can never be finish. Work can never be finish!”

So keep it and do it during working hour! No! Working hour should not be 24hrs!

Its the monthly facial appointment with her where we get to spend that good few hours together. Its on these rare nights where I will be home with nothing to work on and I will be in the living room with her watching TV and laughing together. Its on these rare occasions, where the whole family meets for a meal and spend some quality time together.

No matter how rare these opportunities may be, we always make the greatest use of our time together.

Mum, I love you! Thanks for supporting me all the way!

That’s my mum on the right, with her mum (my grandma) on her right and my godma (also my mum’s elder sister) on their mum’s right. To my three beautiful and lovely mothers. Happy Mother’s Day!

Note to self: I need to take more photos with my mum! The photo above was taken last year during CNY!

So here, I’m going to travel back in time, to the past few Chinese New Year with photos of us…

Now, in 2009…

In 2008…

In 2007…

In 2005…

I can’t find our photos in 2006! If I’ve time to search through the many DVDs of backup, I’ll upload it. I so need to find time to transfer all the many many DVDs into my external HDD! Anyway, can you see the changes in us? Over 4 years, we’ve grown and matured. I wonder how we will look like in 10 years time. It’ll be interesting to compare these photos again.

Anyway, here are some of the photos taken this year with my family…

Noticed that there are many in checked fashion this year? It’s the year of checks!

Huat ah!!

Noticed Qoo Cai’s reaction? She must be wondering what we were doing in the second photo. She’s such a darling!

More photos can be found in my flickr albums… 2009 and 2008

Happy 5th Anniversary Abang!

I love you very much!

MUACK!!

Happy birthday to Uncle Max too! Stay young at heart always!! See you on Christmas!

In my mind, I tried to picture my Grandma, Grandpa, my parents and my love ones. I could hardly recall such details and happy moments I have with them. Especially my Grandma and Grandpa. I grew up living with them till I was in Primary 4. Returned back to stay with my parents since Primary 5 since I was old enough to take care of myself when my parents were at work.

I love my Grandma and Grandpa very much. They are the ones who took care of me since birth and they provided me home, love and many happy times during my fond childhood. They would buy my favorite food for me (hence the chubby me) and they would bring me to the arcades during weekends. They pampered me with toys, books and almost everything I wanted. I am their eldest grandchild so I receive lots of love from them.

I’m thankful that both of them are still around. But due to a complex history, my grandpa is not living with grandma now. The last time I saw him was 3 years ago. And all I could do was ask grandma if he’s ok. No one from my family could see him. He’s living with his protective and selfish family. I don’t know the truth behind this complex relationship, but I just feel very upset that we’re not allowed to visit him. He was very ill when we last saw him, and have been hearing that his condition has improved and deteriorate over the past years. I wish I could visit him, I hope he’ll still remember and recognize his lovely grandchildren if we get to see him again.

I want to be able to have more fond and happy memories with my love ones. I want to be able to tell a beautiful life story of my love ones when they’re no longer around. I want to be able to share my beautiful memories with my love ones in the future. I want to treasure them when they’re still around. I want to be able to spend more time with them when I still can.

I want to tell their life story here in my blog, to keep a record of them for me, for my children, for my family and my love ones. I want to be able to remember all these memories when I grow old. I want to start compiling their story here and keep them alive here… forever…

(Photo taken at Bro’s 21st Birthday few years back.)

Junwei’s 21st Birthday Party
at Grandeur8 Function Room 

Happy 21st Birthday Girl!

Stay pretty always!

The 5 of us. Looking almost similar ya?

5 + 1 of us…

Almost everyone…

So funny lah!

 And I’m jealous!

My mummy kissed you!

Ah Ma kissed you too!

But no one kissed me on my 21st birthday! :(

(Will pass the photos to you soon!)

And now… the one thing that 21st birthday will sure to have…

 
Can you tell whose fingers’ are these?

Extra make-up with moisturizer for you

Not so bad lah!
(As compared to ahxin’s!)

And immediately the guys reacted…

“Sorry sorry! Don’t angry k?”
“If your cousin didn’t remind us, we wouldn’t have done it.”
(Hmmm… I wonder which cousin… hmmm…) *runs and hide*

So loving

Putting the blame on him :P

Who’s birthday’s next?
Better be careful!

I’ll upload some photos on facebook soon so you can tag your friends. :) Many photos didn’t turn out as well as I’d hope. :( Need to get a better flash soon. Pai say ah! Hope those photos I’d selected are up to your standard.