X'mas... on actual day

It was a few years back that we started the tradition of having steamboat for X'mas celebration, usually @ Joshua's place. We made an exception this year by having the typical X'mas food - Turkey, honey baked ham and log-cake. We also had hotdogs, bacon wrapped with 'golden needle' mushroom and Josh and Lydia's salad to complete the X'mas dinner. In fact, it was so sumptuous that we had way too much leftovers... Think its enough to save a state of people in the starving nations of Africa.

Josh brought his 3-in-1 game tables and turned the place into a make-shift community centre. It was great fun though... all of us playing undersized table-tennis and pool, and entertaining Kai at the same time. I can almost picture us like some retired elderly hanging out at an elderly corner under the HBD void deck.

I finally got a Christmas tree this year. Not exactly a good time to spend that money, but we got it anyway. I always wanted to have my owned X'mas tree, and I finally got it now at age 32. ..and I'm sure Joyce wanted it too.

Jason went to Chang Mai, so couldn't make it this year. But we had Raymond, who joined us briefly, and George, as the newest member around. Jennifer had actively joined us since she resumed her single-hood and really seem to enjoy herself. Chris came really late and he was dead tired after he ate and slept on the couch for the rest of the time. It was nice to have Leonard pop by, it was always so difficult to get him for X'mas for the past 20 years I knew him. ... and of course, we all missed the presence of Jackson. We knew he will never miss this session if he's still around.

X'mas Lunch - 20th Dec

Joyce's gang of buddies came over our place for an early x'mas celebration on the 20th of Dec, which happened to be a Hari Raya holiday. It was nice though the general activities and food weren't very in tuned to the Christmas mood.. bit like Chinese New Year considering we had it in the afternoon and had food like curry chicken, popiah, bee hoon... and to top it all up, they played mahjong. But I must admit the feast is quite satisfying, both in terms of variety and quality. The atmosphere really kicked in when the group decided to have the gift exchange, of cos, with the help of my trusty X'mas compilation music in the background which I manage to salvage from my stack of CD collection. Thanks to Joyce for arranging with Catherine to help me shop for a present for the session, though I think Joyce was rather disappointed that I didn't get it myself, but I was just too held up at work before to go shop for something. Well, I'm glad it went well, after all, its the only gift-exchange for this year. Oh, I got an extra large yellow calculator! Really cool...

I noticed its a really a nice thing to have the company of kids around for X'mas, certainly brightens up the mood. Maybe because I'm getting older and enjoy seeing the young happy faces, or maybe its the aftermath of my deprived experience in X'mas celebration when I was their age.

Joyce made Tiramisu for the 1st time. The overall feedback was good from everyone, and I thought it was pretty good too. Its nice to see her take interest in something close to 'cooking'... I knew she had been collecting some recipes and this dessert is a a very good start. Well Done!

November Rain

Been a fantastic month since I left the comfort zone into the world of 'minding my own business'... literally. A lot had happen on the Nov month... apart from doing the work and dealing with the clients, we had been looking for a new office space, planning for it, getting furniture, DIY and reno the office at the lowest cost possible.... I could have written it all in different blogs on different dates.. but the work is just so up my throat. I hv been going home practically past midnight everyday... i hardly hv any time to sleep, let alone blogging.

In short, we moved in the new place at Jln Besar and official started there on Sunday, 2 Dec. According to Naa's mum, its a good day to start, and according to my mum, its best to start on after 11am. So we did - went in, send some emails and put up the signboard... wala!.. its official. We even gave each other Ang Bao.. everything proper except the ribbon cutting... haha.

5 Dec was the worst day to date since everything.. we got into some trouble with the lease agreement - Well, technically, it wasn't a legal agreement. Apparently, the guy, Clarence, who rented the place to us wasn't the real landlord. He was actually the original tenant, but he got into some financial problems...So he sublet to us and moved out, which he wasn't suppose to. The landlord pop by that day and busted the whole thing. Our negligence was that Naa and I were too excited abt taking up the place and didn't notice that the agreement has no signature of the actual landlord. ...Lucky thing was that the landlord is an understanding person, and was willing to gather all the parties involved the next day to attempt to resolve the matter - before she solve it via legal means. It was a nerve-wrecking evening to wait till the next day...it almost like a criminal waiting for a next day sentencing. What made it worst was Jason came over and got our toilet door locked up from the inside, and we don't have the key!... and we end the evening by going to a Eddy's mum wake. What a day!

Well...the good news is, we got it all resolve the next day and we're here to stay! I'll spare the details...

Anyway, I'll take some pic of the place and post them up soon.