First Reunion Meal of Its Kind

For the past 27 years Hubby, 'Bee and I have been together for every reunion dinner, except for one that I spent in hospital due to an emergency ruptured ovarian cyst operation. Somehow reunion won't be the same without her.

That's the sad thing about having only one child who is a daughter. Once the daughter marries her parents are left with only each other to have reunion with. But today we are glad to have our first reunion with 'Bee and our new son-in-law.

It was so very thoughtful of Son-in-Law to propose having a reunion lunch with us at CRC Restaurant because 'Bee and him are the closest family we have. Although we have a number of reunions with various family members before and throughout the New Year, this is definitely icing on the cake.

Thank you Lord for a thoughtful Son-in-Law 

and for granting me the desire of my heart.

No Longer As Delicious

We kicked off the reunions for this year with the Tong siblings gathering for dinner at Delicious Straits Quay this evening. We thought that it would be an ideal venue because there are vegetarian dishes for my Baby Brother.

Sad to say, we were rather disappointed with Delicious nowadays. The food is not as delicious as it used to be (is it my imagination or was it ever since the bought over by E&O?) and the service staff is next to useless. We asked the waitress to recommend a pasta dish and her reply was, "Everything is good." 

'Bee posted on Facebook that she received the same answer in response to the same question from a service staff at Delicious Midvalley. I thought such ridiculous comments were only confined to Delicious outlets in the Klang Valley but I was wrong. That's their standard reply throughout the whole chain. They should really look into re-training their staff.

The meal started with Baby Brother, Baby Sis, Hubby and I. We had a bonus when 'Bee joined us later.

She ordered her regular Angelhair Pasta with Smoked Salmon. Her pasta came piping hot and definitely looks tastier than the Seafood Linguine and Aglio Olio Spaghetti with additional Shitake and Sundried Tomatoes.

If not for the company around the table the dinner would have been a total disaster. And not cheap too.

'Bee's favourite Angelhair Pasta with Smoked Salmon

Baby Brother's Aglio Olio Spaghetti with Extra Shitake and Sundried Tomatoes

The Seafood Linguine was very oily

A Little Thing, A Big Tug

Our first piece of rug in a long time

Sometimes a little thing can bring a big tug to my heart. Like this piece of rug we bought yesterday to hide the rust stain left by the old aquarium.

It seems such a silly thing but in the past one-and-a-half years 'bee was working in Penang I've grown used to her opinions and help in decision making on matters relating to the home. This time Hubby and I chose the rug without her input.

It's times like this that brings home the fact that she is married and, even worse, staying far away in KL : (

I miss her and cannot wait to see her during CNY.

Desa Bella Floral Fest

I love flowers but don't have the time and patience to care for them. But we ae are very fortunate to have a floral fest right at our door-step.

Lovely blooms courtesy of our neighbour

Great Grand-daddy Material

Last Monday (9 January 2012), sis-in-law was in town so we hosted a get-together for her and her hubby and all the nephews and nieces.

During the dinner our grand-nephew Nathanael, on his own accord, just came over, climbed on Kenny's lap and requested that Kenny play scissors paper rock with him. As you can see the two of them had a great time together.

Nathanael with his favourite adult of the evening

Yup, a child insitinctively knows great grand-daddy material when he sees one. 

Down to the Depths of Maui

On our third weekend (second weekend for most of the others) in Maui, a group of us rented a car for a day trip to Lahaina. Our main purpose for the trip was to go on the Atlantis Submarine Tour. The submarine tour is ideal for us ladies because it is the next best thing to donning snokeling gear and getting our hair wet!

Atlantis Adventures for a submarine xperience

First we boarded a boat at Lahaina pier that took us out of the harbour into the open sea to the rendezvous point with the submarine.

From L to R: Madhurita, Tania, Jean, Boey, Norma, me, Swee See and Bongi

We had a funny guide to take us through all the safety drill

On the boat to the rendezvous point

We were all so excited at our first sight of the Atlantis IV emerging from the sea.

The Atlantis IV is no glass-bottom boat. It is really a submarine, albeit a small one, and it is able to carry 48 passengers to depths of 100 feet and beyond. That is good enough for landlubbers like us.

The only thing that disqualifies Atlantis IV from being a "real" submarine is its lack of a periscope. That's not a problem because another boat, the Roxie, that is stationed on the waters above serves as the periscope for Atlantis IV.

That's Roxie beside the Atlantis IV

Going down into the sub

Boey, Tania and I all ready for the dive

We were told to look out for a sunken vessel. The Carthaginian, a replica of a 19th century supply vessel, was deliberately sunk off Lahaina, Maui, to create an artificial reef for the benefit of the marine life.

It was an eerie sight seeing the Cathaginian appearing before us

They really need this artificial reef because much of the reef was lifeless. In fact, hubby's marine tank at home looks better that anything we saw there.

Some of the fish we saw on our undersea trip

This is what we have in our living room

 We went down to a depth of 129 feet and then it was time to surface.

The depth meter

We did not really feel any pressure change but at that depth the port-holes were made of thick acrylic.

3.35" thick acrylic between us and the sea

Langkawi Getaway IV

We're supposed to take the cable car up Gunung Machincang yesterday but it was closed due to strong winds. So this morning we had an early breakfast, called to check that the cable cars are running and sped off for our ride before going to the airport.

The cable cars were running but the sky bridge was closed due to bad weather conditions. : (

We'll have to come back again for our tree top walk.

Hubby in the cable car with the middle station behind him

Tiny toy cable cars going up and down the oldest hills in Langkawi