Pic of 3rd uncle and the rest

Pic of Uncle Benny and 3rd uncle
X'mas dinner
3rd uncle BD Nov 07 at Changi Golf Club
LtoR: Aaron, Clement, Javern, Benny, 3rd Uncle, Audrey & Chris

Uncle Jeff 2nd (yellow) & 3rd son (red) Uncle Chris
X'mas dinner on 24 Dec 06 at my place

Hi Gin Bo,

I am especially impressed of the family tree that you take time to build. It is indeed informative and neat.

I hereby attach some pic for you to further build the profile. Thank you and have a nice day.

Aunt Angie

Dana crossing her 'legs'

I have read that Shelties (affectionate name for Shetland Sheepdogs) can cross their legs and have a modest and reserved look. Well, it is true. Take a look at Dana waiting for my wife to come home.

Day 4 - Return to Normalcy

After the first 3 days of good food, it was return to our (my wife and me) humble hawker centre roots. Come to think of it, I always eat the same food on weekends, if I have my breakfast at the hawker centre near my flat; that's no good for developing innovative thinking. It is always bee hoon soup and a small plate of carrot cake. I buy the bee hoon soup because it has the 'gu-zhar' taste of the market stall I frequented in my childhood days. The carrot cake is good also, because the stall uncle always gives ample quantity of carrot cake and eggs. The portion you see in the photo above costs only $1.50.

On the way back home, saw that a queue has formed outside the TOTO shop. All wishing to be instant millionaires. Could Auntie below be the next winner? Good luck to all!

Family Tree update @ Family Echo

Hi all members

I have updated the Family Echo family tree with some recent photos. I just realised that you can view the page with all the photos shown (see screen shot below of my hainan island relatives). Just select at the bottom of the page Display: "Photos". In fact there are many other options you can choose to display.

If you have forgotten the link to the website, pl email me and I will send you an invite.

CNY 2008 - Day 3

A few weeks ago, mum received an invitation card to lunch at a Aunt Angie's place. Even she was bewildered for a moment as to who Angie was. Aunt Angie is married to Uncle Benny Liew (different from the earlier Benny) who is the eldest son of 3rd Granduncle, who is the sibling of my maternal grandfather.

Anyway, my parents and my wife and I, together with my Uncle Keong, his wife and their son Alec visited Uncle Benny and family.

The first impression when I entered their flat in Pasir Ris was that it was SPOTLESSLY CLEAN and organised. Later, I found out that Uncle Benny is into fengshui and he had consulted a geomancer prior to moving in. So there is really some logic/ meaning to fengshui I guess, cos everything in the flat seemed to be in the right place and moving from one spot to another was smooth.

Auntie Angie is a woman of many talents. Besides her day job, she is quite an accomplished artist, many of the drawings/ paintings in the flat were painted by her! She also does facial for others as a hobby. So what they say about time management is true.

Their daughter Audrey is a staff nurse at one of the SINGHEALTH hospitals. When we visited her room, it had also been fengshui designed, one had to climb up a short flight of steps to reach her study table -- to signify "climbing higher".

Here's the happy family in a group photo with us.
Mum also could not resist taking a photo in the small 'garden' on the balcony.

CNY 2008 - Day 2

The whole of Day 2 was spent at Aunt Sherry's place at Woodlands. Aunt Sherry and her husband, Benny are based in China and they only came back occasionally. We joked that the next time we see them could probably be CNY 2009. Aunt Sherry had catered a buffet and added a lot more homecook food: fried shrimps, fried ngoh-hiong, braised mushroom-dried oyster combi, tao suan, yam paste, 300 sticks of satay and the list goes on.

We also took the chance to celebrate Uncle Benny's 52nd Birthday. His son Sinclair, a qualified patissier and Sinclair's wife-to-be, also a patissier, whipped up a $600 birthday day that was fit for a king. The cake was huge and oh so rich, with fruit stuffings mixed with cognac and the very best quality chocolate and sprinkled with gold dust. What a treat!
From left: Uncle Benny's elder sister, Uncle Benny himself, Auntie Sherry, Seth (Uncle Benny's grandson) and an unidentified boy (son of uncle's friend).Me, with my maternal grandfather. He is forever asking me when I intend to have kids. When I try to laugh it off, he will give me another round of lecture haha. (From left): Cousin Jialun (partially hidden), Cousin Jinglun and Nephew Seth.

CNY 2008 - Day 1 (大年初一）

The plan today was to have a simple lunch at my parents' place followed by dinner at Ben's. Quite slack isn't it, that's what my cousin Jinglun said. He called me for help to rescue him from his house as his parents decided not to go for visits today. So I dropped by and fetched him on the way to my parent's place in Woodlands.

Lunch was good and brings back memories of eating my dad's cooking daily when we stayed together. After lunch, we spent some time playing with the dogs. Ben then went back home first to prepare for dinner. I then sent Jinglun to Aunt Sherry's place which is where Jinglun will be spending the night.

One of the advantage of living in Woodlands, despite its distance from town, is that it still has lots of greenery and high ground. I love to amble up this small knoll opposite my dad's place and look down at the scenery. It was also good and neccesary exercise for me and for Dana.

Nice and breezy for Dana today.

CNY 2008 Reunion Dinner

Dad came up with the idea of having reunion dinner outside and in a vegetarian stall. The stall is a very popular vegetarian outlet at Ang Mo Kio and we have visited it a couple of times before. The dishes are very well cooked and do not have the 'vegetarian' taste that can put some people off. I have taken photos of the 8-course meal (around $240) and I am surprised they look pretty tasty. On the food, it tasted quite good but I think the normal dishes they offer are better.