Chinese New Year

Every year for Chinese New Year, our family has a pretty unique tradition. We have 2 reunion meals - this is where we differ from other families because one is technically a reunion late-lunch and the other is a reunion dinner. The reason we have two is because we head back to Sitiawan for my dad's side of the family early in the morning, stay till after the reunion late-lunch and then rush back to Penang for the reunion dinner with my mom's side of the family. Mind you, its a 3 hour drive in between so its quite a hectic day.

Reunion late-lunch normally consists of my aunts home cooked fare with some restaurant ordered dishes. The must have Sitiawan CNY food would be the 'Ko-ru' which I love and is actually fish bladder cooked in a sour spicy soup with bamboo shoots. Oh so yummy. I'm so going to miss this in Aus. Reunion dinner back in Penang would be steamboat and every year I will go for the quail's eggs and sliced pig kidneys! Oh I love those. Properly cleaned and cooked just right, those are the best! CNY is the one time in the year where I allow myself to eat those kidneys and ignore the warning bells of cholesterol.

This year all travelling hears no complaints from me. It is after all my last year of receiving angpows :) I will happily meet every single member of the extended family and receive my dues. Haha. The shot above is one of my cousins from mom's side with sis and I.

cheryl

VISA finally..

I received notice from the Australian embassy about my visa approval 2 weeks ago. Finally got it onto my passport! Now all our plans can go into full throttle. Before this, every action or plan made was followed by 'if the visa gets approved'. It's finally here! So yes, I can now enter and leave Australia as many times as I please until it expires in Oct. :)

My only gripe about this is how plain the visa looks. It doesnt have bright colors, just wavy stripes of yellow and red. Its so plain in comparison to my US visa.

Can't wait to use this and flash my way through immigrations.. whoopee!


cheryl

The trip on the A380 to Penang!

The Airbus 380... The 'King' of the skies...

1st pic: Shows the initial landing of SQ221 from Singapore about 30 minutes late. This would be the plane taking me to Singapore as SQ220, which left about 40 minutes late. As the Captain of the plane said, you try cleaning and restocking a super jumbo within 70 minutes! :P

2nd pic: The plane itself was quite dirty... Dad's first reaction was... 'this plane needs a wash!'

3rd pic: Shows the upper deck economy. It's a tad cramped to get the luggage up and with everyone standing but it's got a very nice feel to it and it's a nice plane to be on. Upper deck is definitely more personal, with only 66 seats, making it more quiet and spacious.

4th pic: Shows the inside of the spacious 399 seat economy class section. This picture and the one below show the lower deck, but I was on the upper deck!! :)

5th pic: Shows again the A380 in all its glory... Shot taken from the back of the plane on the lower deck. If you get a chance to take the A380, do it... It's well worth it!

6th pic: Cheryl and I at a wedding dinner on the first Saturday I was there. Very nice ambience but the food was so so.

7th pic: This last picture is JUST for Jen... Notice the white patch in the soup? Does it look like Fish lips or what??

More pictures to follow, when I get more time. But for now, do enjoy these few.

Until next time...

Alex.

Photoshoot day!

It's Jan 21 - Photoshoot Day!

Alex and I headed to Aspial early this morning for our photoshoot. We came prepared with water and some biscuits in case we got hungry midway. Our morning started out at 930am with me getting my make up done and Alex getting his hair done. With every outfit change, I had my hair changed as well. Unfortunately for the groom, he gets one hairstyle only :) Oh, such fun for the girls!





This is me getting my hair done. Do forgive the quality of the pic. It was taken with my VGA cam on my mobile. The girl doing my hair is Benny. Notice countless amount of pins on the table. Oh and the pile of black on the table is.. you guessed right.. fake hair. I must say though, in this shot, all the hair on my head is proudly my own. 100% authentic.

I don't have any good shots of Alex on my mobile. So I cant post them up. Anyway, this is a teaser till we get our full, edited album :) We ended the day at 830pm. It was a full day of smiling, posing, focusing and standing straight. So tiring! Our photographer was Kenneth and together with his sidekick Yang, the two of them kept us smiling and moving along. They were fantastic. Now we are just glad to be home. It's an experience both Alex and I share that we will always remember. That's the most important thing.

cheryl

Accepting Our 1st Wedding Invite

A friend of mine is getting married today and it also marks the first time Alex and I are attending a wedding together. It's going to be a church wedding so it gives Alex a chance to observe how weddings are conducted here. And again, I can't stress enough how this makes our future discussions about our wedding easier. As thankful as I am to Alexander Graham Bell for inventing the phone, a picture paints a thousand words or I should say in this case, an event paints a thousand words.

There will be a dinner reception tonight.

cheryl

Alex arrives today!

The title speaks for itself. He arrives today! After this its going to be a whirlwind of activity for the two of us. I have so much lined up to do, the poor fella is going to be feeling rather pushed for time. Unfortunately he does have to allocate some time to study as well so let's hope everything turns out alright.

Gotta be at the airport 5.30pm.

cheryl

2008: The year of the big year...

Well... It's been a LONG time since an entry. Heaps has happened as always. This month is the month where we make semi concrete arrangements. The hotel will be booked by the end of this and hopefully the Visa will flow through as I believe we've satisfied the requirements. It's just a matter of waiting now. Once that is set, everything can be put in place. I'm heading over to Penang in 12 days, not that I'm counting to spend time with my gal and well the highlight of the trip is definitely the shoot. It's a tradition that the photos get done before the ceremony. Why so far in advance you ask? I don't head to Penang so often.

2008 will prove to be a big year... Not only will Cheryl and I FINALLY settle down and start an amazing life together, but I'll be over half way with my masters degree and edging ever closer to becoming a pharmacist. Yep, the life of drugs awaits...! :P

I got to admit though, organising a wedding and even getting things ready for the big day is painful! I think that the scene from Father of the Bride where we are around the table eliminating names could take place quite soon...

But for the meantime... That's all for now. Heaps to plan, heaps to do.

Alex, just in case you think Cheryl wrote this...

Dress day!

Today being Jan 5, mom, Deb and I headed off to Aspial ready for a looong day looking and choosing my 6 dresses needed for the photoshoot. I am allowed to choose any mix of white gowns, evening dresses and a traditional outfit if I see any that meets my fancy.

In the end I opted for 3 whites, 1 peach, 1 green (which no one else seems to like) and 1 pink. I did not choose any of the traditional outfits since all of it with the exception of one, had dragons and phoenixes embroidered on it. The one outfit that was free of such embroidery, made me look like I stepped out of a Hong Kong old school vampire flick. You know the ones that hold their arms out and jumps around? Yeah.. get that visual and you'll know why I didnt go for it.

We took 5 hours to choose the 6 dresses. According to mom and sis, I tried nearly 40 dresses. In my opinion, it was probably 30. :p Anyways, its done now. We are completely worn out from today's activities. Looking forward to Jan 21 - photoshoot day!

Sometimes having too many choices is not a good thing.

cheryl

About buying shirts..

Admittedly, I don't have much experience in buying men's shirts. What is the current trend? Pockets or no pockets? Collar or no collar? Or maybe a Mandarin collar? Stripes or no stripes?

I have been scouring shops looking at various designs of shirts so that I may get Alex some for the photo shoot. We have been told to bring maybe some different coloured/designed ones so he has some variety in his photos. Bridal photoshoots are mainly focused on the bride - hence the term 'bridal' but I figured I ought to be nice and get him looking good too. Aren't I considerate? :)

In the end, I went with something safe and simple. Modern and young looking. There was a Christmas sale going on so it was a pretty good bargain. What do you think?

cheryl

Shoe Shopping

I went around several shopping malls looking for wedding shoes. I need a pair of white ones for the photoshoot and the walk down the aisle. I wanted a nice off white pair, not made of plastic, possibly with lace work, semi-covered, with not too high a heel, no platforms, no wedges and not a peep toe. Kinda picky am I not? Haha... Well to sum it up, I just wanted something classy and reusable with normal outfits after the wedding.

Thanks to Mace, who saw this beautiful shoe at Metrojaya while shopping with Pin, I have now found a beautiful pair! :)

Next up, finding the right shoe to match my dinner dress in July. Fun, fun, fun!

cheryl