Reunion dinner @ CNY Eve

Well, as we already being informed, reunion dinner usually is held the night before a new year in Lunar calendar begins. It is the day where family members meet, eat, chat and laugh together. In ancient times, it is a 'pantang' for not attending the dinner. In modern days, it is not a must but advisable. Some even did not go back to their home town citing busy with their works, business or whatsoever reasons leaving behind their parents in 'kampung'. Remember the award winning Petronas tv commercial? It send a strong message to the youngsters not to forget about their parents who are waiting for their homecoming during this festive season.

As for my family, we had the reunion dinner on Thursday night. We had reunion dinner earlier each year ever since my sister (Jun Jun's mum) had married. She need to be on her husband side family for their reunion dinner. All of the above was my mum cooking including a kampung chicken delivered fresh from Kampung Bukit Tinggi, Pahang. For Chinese community in Malaysia, a new year will not be perfect with toasting yee sang. If not mistaken, this yee sang was originated from Malaysia. It consists of 7 different parts of vegetables and is mixed with slices of fresh fish. Do you know how to make a vegetarian yee sang? Click here for my post last year. After the reunion dinner, family members will wait the arrival of the first day of CNY. Parents will place a table at the entrance of the house which is covered with red wrappings. Then, they will put offerings and also other prayers item to greet the God of Fortune. Each year, the arrival of God of Fortune is different. So, you need to check the timing with the aunties to confirm the time as well as the direction of the prayers. Usually, during the prayers, crackers will be burnt to shoo away the bad lucks or spirits (if not mistaken) and to greet the God of Fortune. For typical Chinese, they won't care of being issued a summon letter but most importantly, they got the 'ong' or wealthiness from the prayers. In fact, things can be settle with an angpow to shoo away the policemen. It is the best time for them to 'cari makan' too. Usually, police patrol cars can be seen since 9-10 pm till the midnight of 1-2 am. This picture is freshly taken a moment ago during the prayers. I can feel the festive spirits as many burnt fire crackers. I guess it will be even more during cho 9.

That's the best shot. Taken from my house compound.

Finally, I took a brave move to post this picture. It was taken at Thean Hou temple and my friend force me to wear that. Check out my 'ong' hat and its tail. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year. I had made the header above just for this festive season period. Hope it won't be so ugly as I do not know how to use photoshop, only know powerpoint. Once again,

1. For all my dear readers: TQ for your constant visiting and commenting. Love you guys so much.
2. For all $mile readers, may this year brings us more income$.
3. For non Chinese readers: Happy HoLIDayS!!

Tiger roars!! It's my year!! Gong Xi Fa Chai!!

CNY 2010 Decorations @ 1 Utama Shopping Centre

Hurray!! Today is the eve of CNY! Finally, the most awaited festive season has arrived. So, have you done with you CNY shopping? While doing so at 1 Utama Shopping Centre, I snapped some of the CNY decors.




Fortune cat? I wonder why there is no tiger being displayed instead of these cats.

Red lanterns are a must symbolising prosperity, health and wealth.

Some stalls selling CNY items at the main hall.

While shopping half way, I heard loud noises of the Chinese drums. So, I tailed the sound till I reached back to this hall which was already fully packed! It was a lion dance performance!


Due to the crowd, I have no choice but to stand behind somebody and snap those photos using high zoom. Luckily, I still have the enough height to do so.

Let see the my recorded video below:

After the stage performance, the lion went down to reach to the crowds so that they can touch it. Is it an 'ong' act to touch the lion?

There were two lions, red and green.

Too bad I was standing at upper floors as the ground floor was super crowded.

Back to the main stage.

After the lion dance, there was another show by myFm. Not sure what was it.


At another site, there were these Chinese cultural dance performances. If not mistaken, you can see such same performances at all Jusco shopping complex.


Another one. Why don't we see their performance through my below recorded video clip.

After that, we went to McD because Jun Jun want some French fries. He was no. 1 fans of McD since age of 3.


This was the depressed Jun Jun. Just 2 weeks of schooling at a kindergarten, I was shock to learn that he had depression. His attitude was totally change in just 2 weeks. He was physically weak and slimmer. He cried daily and do not want to go school. He can't even recognised me and started to be afraid of me. He don't play with his toys, do not eat his favourite McD etc. All that he did was to cry and sleep daily.

Poor Jun Jun. At 3rd week, he took a week holiday due to fever before resuming class at 4th week. Perhaps that the one week time was good enough to recover his emotions, he started not to cry that often thereafter. As his kau fu, I do played part by bringing him out and promises him more if he do not cry or do not refuse to go school. He can be easily persuaded with McD French fries. Haha. He is getting better now.

Thanks for the nang!

Tiger Run @ Jaya One by Nuffnang and Tiger Beer

Have you seen my post on 'My Dream in the Year of Tiger'? If not, click here. By writing the post, I am entitled to participate the Tiger Run organised by Nuffnang and Tiger Beer. The grand prize winner of the Tiger Run will walk home with RM 8888 worth of dreams and additional RM 1888 cash prize! So, 7 of us reached Jaya One about 4 pm and wandered around before the registration opened at around 4.15 pm. During registration, we were required to sign a letter of declaration of our health status and provide information of our next of kin. Wow.. so serious? Initially, we thought it was just a station game but looking to the presence of St. John Ambulance team and also cones surrounding the perimeter of Jaya one, it should be a real marathon! Upon registration, we were provided with an empty goodies bag. Our name written on sticky note was pasted on the goodies bag instead of on our clothes. After registration, we were then required to wait until the marathon was to be officially kicked off. While waiting, we managed to spot a leopard dressed lady who happened to be Alison. She came here far away from Terengganu to attend this event. It has been long time we didn't managed to meet each other after the UCSI 7th Public Health Campaign held at Sunway Pyramid. Click here to check the post. How are we supposed to run a marathon with the goodies bag? It is indeed a new experience for all of us. Accordingly, this guy is Kevin Chong from the Ntv7 Breakfast Crew. He looks familiar to me but I cant recall who he is until Raj enlighten me on our UCSIPSS Oath Taking cum Pharmacy Night 2009. He was the one who came with my UCSI TV crews and interviewed my VIP, Datuk Nancy Ho, the President of Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS). Check the gala night here. Forgot to mention, he was the emcee for the event. He was using a hailer but we can't hear any words uttered by him. Everyone was puzzled and confused how the marathon run. He should have raise up the hailer and speak. Everyone was listening attentively but too bad the message wasn't really clear. What we heard was to run round and round and round until you reach Bar Madrid, the final destination. So, how many round we need to run?? Alright, let me explain to all of you. Our starting point was at outside of Headquartrs Bistro. From there, we need to run along the perimeter of Jaya One indicated in red line for TWO rounds. After that, we shall make our first stop at Headquartrs Bistro. At Headquartrs Bistro, we were required to tweet anything regarding the Tiger Run using the provided 6 laptops with 1 of them was not functioning. After running for 2 rounds along the perimeter of Jaya One, I reached this pit stop and quickly grabbed a glass of cold water to quench my thirst. It was a long queue and I wondered what was going wrong. Participants who do not have a Twitter account were required to register a new account and tweet #tigerrun. Participants can also tweet from their mobile phone but I was too stupid to use the technology. Do add me into your tweeter account, don't let me be alone. Click here. Due to the 'super duper' fast internet connection and lack of laptop to be used, the queue was getting longer and longer till I saw Nic, Charlene and Vun were tailing back. After the task was completed, each of the participant was given a sticker pasted on their goodies bag. From the Headquartrs Bistro, we need to run using the green path to our next station which was Royal Oak. At here, all we need to do was very simple, grab a bottle of Tiger beer and placed it into your goodies bag. Simple huh? After that, we need to run back passing Headquartrs Bistro using the green path and continue another round and head towards Frontera. At here, we were required to eat the super spicy habanero chicken wing. There were a lot of baskets of the chicken wing and if the participants were lucky enough and pick correct basket, it will be a non spicy habanero chicken wing. For mine, it was super duper spicy!! One should eat the chicken wing completely despite the hot burning flaming sensation and showed the bone to the staff before they got their stage completion sticker. What next? Run using the green path for one more cycle! Our next station was Cafe Chulo Spanish Restaurant and Tapas Bar. We need to climb the stairs to go up to the bar. At here, we were required to log in into FB account and become a fan of Tiger Beer Facebook Fan Page. If not mistaken, there were only 4 laptops available. In addition, the connection was super duper slow again. This explained the longer and longer queue as time passed. Again, for those who can online using their mobile phone, they can sit on the sofa in relax mood and performed the task. What next? I'm sure you know well about the mechanism of the marathon right? Yea.. run one more cycle using the green path! This would be the last one where we will head to the Bar Madrid. At Bar Madrid, the staff will check your goodies bag to ensure participants have collected enough stickers and items during the marathon. There were 2 stations where items were given to the participants during the run. After checking, you will then required to pose like a Tiger in front of the backdrop where a staff will take your posing picture. L- This was the goodies bag and the each stage completion stickers. R- These were the items collected during the run. After completion of the marathon, we then 'chilled up' at the Bar Madrid drinking countless of cold waters and chatting. I then asked Wan Nah for a spicy habanero chicken wing re-challenge. We headed back to Frontera and tried the chicken wings again. We were once again being cheated to eat a super duper spicy chicken wing by one of the male staff. After that, we only managed to identify those non spicy chicken wings.

Alright, here was the said super duper spicy habanero chicken wing!

Coming up next was a tiger show performance...ooops it should be a lion dance! Not just one but a pair of lion. Check out the tail of the lion!

And this was another lion. See the below video clip recorded by me.

Charlene and Wan Nah posing like a tiger. Roarrr!

With the lion's head.

With the Tiger Beer@!

With someone

Let me present you the first food of the night, plate of hotdog stick! I waited quite some time for this fast moving food to be replenished. Actually, the hotdog was rather salty.

Tuna on baguette

Spanish pork meatball

BBQ Chicken wings which turn to be salty too.

Cupcakes.. In fact, melted cream cupcakes. LOL

From left: Garden salad, unknown, Spanish potato salad (weird taste)

Asian fried rice

Wan Nah eating her chicken wings~

Me eating the hotdog and being disturbed with the bottle of beers~

L- The husband and wife kissing in the public. R- Vun and his friends, Joshua Law. Check out the man behind me and Charlene. He is Chan June Yew who won the Tiger Run Marathon. He completed the marathon in approximately 19 minutes if not mistaken when I was just to reach Royal Oak (second station). His secret was to run 20 km per day. OMG!! Number 1. We were number one. Alright, to be specify, he was number one in the run while I'm the number one eater of the night. Haha. Not just eating, it was added with a drinking session with none other than our sponsor, Tiger Beer!

Cheers!~

During half way dinner'ing, the emcee called out everyone for a prize giving ceremony. The orange T-shirt guy was the one who cheated me & Charlene to eat the super duper spicy chicken wings at Frontera. For all the winner below, they won themselves 6 packs of Tiger Beer and RM 88 angpow!! 1st- Most creative blog post submitted- It was the egg yolk again who won it. Previously, he was the runner up for the Mister Potato Fiesta 2009 blogging contest. 2nd- Best dressed female runner- Alice in the wonderland who wore 4 inch thick shoes took the title defeating Allison, the wild leopard lady. 3rd- Most eccentric runner at Bar Madrid 4th- Most eccentric runner at Cafe Chulo Spanish Restaurant and Tapas Bar- Congrats Raj!! 1st- Most eccentric runner at Frontera 2nd- Most eccentric runner at Headquartrs Bistro 3rd- Most eccentric runner at Royal Oak- Yat Kor. He told me that he got the title by changing his not so cool bottle of tiger beer to a cooler one to put it on his lips. This was because his lips got 'flamed' by eating the super duper spicy habanero chicken wing. 4th- Mystery category - Dustyhawk went home with this prize. Guess what kind of mystery award was that? He was being awarded the title for being withdrawn from the competition the earliest! OMG! Top- Chan June Sew receiving mock cheque of RM 8888 + RM 1888 Bottom- 1st runner up from both male and female categories with RM 8888

Hall of fame~

Congratulations to all winners!! According to Raj, RM 88 has been deposited to his Nuffnang account. Raj, shall we go out for yum cha?

Group photo with the CHAMPION!~

L- The champion and Allison. For your info, Allison was one of the finalist in recent Miss Malaysia. R- Husband and wife. L- Raj and Alice in the Wonderland. R- Nic and his 6 pack 'body'

Charlene & Chie Chek

Solo picture with Huai Bin from sixthseal.com. I would like to comment something about him. He is really a drinker. At the starting point of the marathon, he already seen holding a bottle of beer and finished drinking not even when the run started. Then, after I finished my run, I saw him with another bottle at Bar Madrid. During the prize giving ceremony, he hold another one. During the picture taking session, he hold another one. I really want to find out how many bottle he had drank. Geng!~ Group photo with Huai Bin, one of the Malaysian top blogger and was one of the featured blogger in Project Alpha Season 1.

Showing the love sign, yea we love TIGER and Nuffnang too!~

After the photo taking session, it was the continuation of our drinking session.

The red tomato face of me and CC.

Once again, thanks Nuffnang especially Robb for organising this w0nderful event to all the Nuffnangers. Special thanks to Tiger Beer as well for sponsoring the event and the beer. Not to forget, thanks for the super duper laggy connection by the official internet provider, P1W1max. In just one day, I had visited 5 bars in total. Great!~ *Pre marathon picture was taken by Joshua Law.