Hugeass Post
Since I haven't updated for ages, and this being the festive season where I had parties lined up galore, this is going to be a humongous Incredible Hulk kind of King Kong post.
With loads of pictures.
Please, if you are still running on a dinosaur-age 56.6k modem, don't read any further. Just click "back" on your browser.
Now, for all those people who are running on high-speed modems, come on into my crazy hectic world starting with my aunt's (my dad's older sister) 60th birthday celebration.
__________________________________________
16th DECEMBER
My aunt's very glam and noisy birthday celebration was held at Tung Lok Restaurant at East Coast, where my family had a private room to ourselves with 12 tables.
Twelve. Some weddings don't even have that many tables. Sometimes I'm shocked by how many relatives I have, despite being reminded of that fact every Chinese New Year when I go round to bai nian.
And my family is pretty fertile. I have at least 2 new nephews or nieces added each year courtesy of my innumerable cousins. They don't stop breeding, seriously. When I finally get married, I will probably need to bankrupt myself each year giving out ang pows.
It was really fun though, especially since there were relatives I hadn't seen in ages, and I got the chance to hug all my little nieces and nephews. And at the end of the night, everyone got really noisy and drunk - as is my family's wont at weddings and birthdays.
Check out my aunt's birthday cake. As you can probably tell from it, she's an ultra-high-level seasoned mahjong pro.
From left: My dad, my aunt the birthday lady, my grandmother, my second aunt.
My dad and me. I'm a daddy's girl through and through.
The latest addition to my family, my 4-month-old nephew Benedict.
___________________________________________________
19th DECEMBER
This was a crazy night.
I'd arranged to go clubbing at Butter Factory for my birthday, and decided to extend an open invite to all my friends.
In the end, the people who turned up were: Wayne, Desmond, Francis, Meiyi, Katy, Alex, Veron, Adrian, Julia, Nethia, Luke, Bryan, Neo, Sara, Jessie, and Jackie. Not too shabby, eh? Muchos gracias to all who turned up!
I had barely been in the club 5 minutes before Wayne got me a Butter Factory Iced Tea, which I absolutely love. And from then on, the floodgates opened - literally.
I have vague memories of downing 3 Flaming Lambourghinis, 2 Butter Iced Teas, 5 shots of goodness knows what different things, 2 beers, a red wine, and several other housepours. I love being the birthday girl for this very reason - free drinks all the way.
Normally I pride myself on being able to hold my liquour well (hah! No way you perverts can date-rape me!) but with the copious amounts of alcohol I was ingesting at high speed that night, it was no wonder I started to feel woozy at about 2 am.
So I staggered outside to the back alley with Jess, Bryan, Wayne, Desmond, Luke and a few other guys. By that time I was so far gone I was swaying even while sitting down.
Jess, a little afraid that I would call D (who, by the way, is now known as BB for reasons only Jess and I are aware of), took my phone from me and held on tightly to it as I swayed drunkenly on the bench and demanded that she get BB down right that minute. I don't blame her; the last time I was at Butter Factory, I didn't exactly acquit myself very well by calling up my ex-boyfriend.
This time though, I couldn't care less about the ex - it was BB I wanted to see.
"Jess, get him down!" I demanded.
"No," Jess said stubbornly.
I decided to bargain a little.
"Come on Jess, I promise I won't sleep with him. At the most I'll snog him," I said.
Jess shot me the dirtiest possible look she could muster.
"No," she said with finality. "Look at you now - you're so drunk. Do you really want BB to see you in this state?"
"What the hell?" I said indignantly. "I'm not drunk ok! I can still walk in a straight line! I show you!"
And with that, I proceeded to stagger zigzaggedly down the alley with my friends' uproarious laughter trailing off behind me. Some friends they are.
Of course, that put paid to any more ideas of me asking BB down. Eventually we all left the club at 4 am and headed to Mac's for supper, and thankfully my head had cleared by then so I was able to walk down to Liang Court.
I finally got home at 5 am and fell into bed. There's more to come the next day!
(No pics 'cause I look ugly in all the pics Sara took.)
_________________________________________________
20th DECEMBER
My actual birthdate, and this was the day I'd invited our colleagues down for a cookout/chillout/birthday/Christmas session.
Jessie and I had planned this months before, and Jess actually went to the trouble of preparing a nice little atas menu which she emailed to all the guys a week before to whet their tastebuds.
I was in charge of the salad rolls, penne bolognaise and brownies while Jess took care of the mushroom soup, baked rice and potato salad.
The both of us woke up at bloody 8 am - and fortunately I wasn't nursing a hangover - and went together to Cold Storage at Centrepoint to get our groceries.
While shopping, we came across the most amusing thing:
Look at that! We found a food that combines both Jess's and my nicknames together! There couldn't be a cuter affirmation of our best-friendship!
We finally got back at 11 am lugging a crazy amount of groceries, and once we started cooking it became clear, as Jess put it, that we were making enough to feed an entire army today and tomorrow.
The guys were told to come at 2 pm, but they all turned up late at about 2:30 pm. Which didn't matter because Jess and I hadn't finished cooking yet.
So amidst much complaints that they were hungry and needed food fast, we finally got the guys settled down with Sockie on the couch, watching Starsky and Hutch, while Jess and I frantically cobbled our dishes together.
Food was finally served much to the satisfaction of all. C absolutely loved my salad rolls and couldn't get enough of my brownies (heh), R and J fell in love with Jess's baked rice and mushroom soup, and Jess scarfed down my pasta like it was going out of style while I stuffed myself with her potato salad.
Later, the guys brought out a nice lychee cake that they were sweet enough to get for me, even though our gathering was supposed to be for Christmas and not my birthday.
My cake!
My cake with candles lit
Pumpkin Flower and me
J and me
R and me
C and me. C totally loved Sockie and was lavishing him with cuddles and pats, and Sockie seemed to gravitate towards him too, which wasn't too much of a surprise since we often tease C about being a Jack Russell Terrier as well, since he's active and mischievous and ji siao.
J and me again
R and his cutie-pie smile
C trying his best not to look yandao
Jess and me with the present she and J got for me. Tommy Hilfiger's "Dreaming"! When I ripped open the present I was jumping for joy!
Later after we finished our food, R went off on a hot date he had leaving the rest of us, so we switched off all the lights and watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which was a fabulous movie.
So ended an equally fabulous birthday for me.
_________________________________________________
22nd DECEMBER
Now this was the day everyone in Pig Clan had been looking forward to - our Pig Clan annual Christmas gathering plus Jessie's and my combined birthday celebrations.
The Pigs came in full force, no less, and we had great fun as usual, but the most fun part had to be the present exchange and Jess and I were swamped in gifts.
Kevin and Jiefang very sweetly baked some glorious muffins for everyone, Luke brought red wine, Jess and I ordered pizza and chicken wings, and everyone ate and toasted each other.
The warmth and happiness running through the room, with all of us there together, was practically palpable. After a pretty tough year with school, work, my mum leaving for the States, and me living on my own, it absolutely warmed my heart to be together with all my best friends, celebrating happy occasions like birthdays and Christmas.
The 2 birthday girls toasting each other. Jess is in the gorgeous Zara dress that Pig Clan got her as her present. Doesn't she look fantastic? I love her in that dress!
Me surrounded by all my presents. I'm wearing the beautiful earrings Kokes got me, and on the table are chocolates from Kevin, an iPod cover from Yinghui, a Citigems pendant from Lindy, a wallet from Bryan, a make-up travel kit from Cindy, and the best, best, best gift of all:
An iPod Nano from the whole of Pig Clan.
When I opened it I literally screamed and jumped and teared up, it was something I had been wanting for so long and never in my wildest dreams did I expect that the Piglets would get it for me.
Me and Jess. This time it's Jess that's surrounded by all her presents. And this may sound narcissistic, but I heart my leggings.
Me and Cindy, who put the icing on my day by telling me I'd lost quite a lot of weight.
Another great day spent with great people, and I ended the day feeling absolutely loved and warmed by these fantastic buddies of mine.
_______________________________________________________
24th DECEMBER
After days of partying with friends, this was the day for family - my mum's family this time round.
I went to my uncle's condo where we had a barbeque going, and I joined my 4 little cousins in a bit of swimming before we launched headlong into the food that my 2 uncles painstakingly marinated, skewered, and grilled all by themselves.
The 4 boys have all grown tremendously and while playing with them I felt a little bit of melancholy come over me at the knowledge that they were growing up quickly and soon their childhood cuteness and innocence would be lost. Lijie's already 10, Junkai 9, Yonghao 7, and the baby Junwen is still a baby, turning 1 year old soon.
I resolved to spend more time with my maternal grandmother and the boys, and decided I would bring them out for a lunch and a trip to the zoo, which was what I'd been wanting to do for a long while but couldn't find the time.
My uncle made wine spritzers and egg nog and we all toasted Christmas in together, which, after a week of boozing crazily with friends, made for a nice, sedate change (though I admit I still prefer boozing with friends hahaha).
_________________________________________________
Last but not least, a big big thank you to all the people who gave me such a wondrous birthday and Christmas this year. The memories will always be cherished. Thanks guys.
With loads of pictures.
Please, if you are still running on a dinosaur-age 56.6k modem, don't read any further. Just click "back" on your browser.
Now, for all those people who are running on high-speed modems, come on into my crazy hectic world starting with my aunt's (my dad's older sister) 60th birthday celebration.
__________________________________________
16th DECEMBER
My aunt's very glam and noisy birthday celebration was held at Tung Lok Restaurant at East Coast, where my family had a private room to ourselves with 12 tables.
Twelve. Some weddings don't even have that many tables. Sometimes I'm shocked by how many relatives I have, despite being reminded of that fact every Chinese New Year when I go round to bai nian.
And my family is pretty fertile. I have at least 2 new nephews or nieces added each year courtesy of my innumerable cousins. They don't stop breeding, seriously. When I finally get married, I will probably need to bankrupt myself each year giving out ang pows.
It was really fun though, especially since there were relatives I hadn't seen in ages, and I got the chance to hug all my little nieces and nephews. And at the end of the night, everyone got really noisy and drunk - as is my family's wont at weddings and birthdays.
Check out my aunt's birthday cake. As you can probably tell from it, she's an ultra-high-level seasoned mahjong pro.
From left: My dad, my aunt the birthday lady, my grandmother, my second aunt.
My dad and me. I'm a daddy's girl through and through.
The latest addition to my family, my 4-month-old nephew Benedict.
___________________________________________________
19th DECEMBER
This was a crazy night.
I'd arranged to go clubbing at Butter Factory for my birthday, and decided to extend an open invite to all my friends.
In the end, the people who turned up were: Wayne, Desmond, Francis, Meiyi, Katy, Alex, Veron, Adrian, Julia, Nethia, Luke, Bryan, Neo, Sara, Jessie, and Jackie. Not too shabby, eh? Muchos gracias to all who turned up!
I had barely been in the club 5 minutes before Wayne got me a Butter Factory Iced Tea, which I absolutely love. And from then on, the floodgates opened - literally.
I have vague memories of downing 3 Flaming Lambourghinis, 2 Butter Iced Teas, 5 shots of goodness knows what different things, 2 beers, a red wine, and several other housepours. I love being the birthday girl for this very reason - free drinks all the way.
Normally I pride myself on being able to hold my liquour well (hah! No way you perverts can date-rape me!) but with the copious amounts of alcohol I was ingesting at high speed that night, it was no wonder I started to feel woozy at about 2 am.
So I staggered outside to the back alley with Jess, Bryan, Wayne, Desmond, Luke and a few other guys. By that time I was so far gone I was swaying even while sitting down.
Jess, a little afraid that I would call D (who, by the way, is now known as BB for reasons only Jess and I are aware of), took my phone from me and held on tightly to it as I swayed drunkenly on the bench and demanded that she get BB down right that minute. I don't blame her; the last time I was at Butter Factory, I didn't exactly acquit myself very well by calling up my ex-boyfriend.
This time though, I couldn't care less about the ex - it was BB I wanted to see.
"Jess, get him down!" I demanded.
"No," Jess said stubbornly.
I decided to bargain a little.
"Come on Jess, I promise I won't sleep with him. At the most I'll snog him," I said.
Jess shot me the dirtiest possible look she could muster.
"No," she said with finality. "Look at you now - you're so drunk. Do you really want BB to see you in this state?"
"What the hell?" I said indignantly. "I'm not drunk ok! I can still walk in a straight line! I show you!"
And with that, I proceeded to stagger zigzaggedly down the alley with my friends' uproarious laughter trailing off behind me. Some friends they are.
Of course, that put paid to any more ideas of me asking BB down. Eventually we all left the club at 4 am and headed to Mac's for supper, and thankfully my head had cleared by then so I was able to walk down to Liang Court.
I finally got home at 5 am and fell into bed. There's more to come the next day!
(No pics 'cause I look ugly in all the pics Sara took.)
_________________________________________________
20th DECEMBER
My actual birthdate, and this was the day I'd invited our colleagues down for a cookout/chillout/birthday/Christmas session.
Jessie and I had planned this months before, and Jess actually went to the trouble of preparing a nice little atas menu which she emailed to all the guys a week before to whet their tastebuds.
I was in charge of the salad rolls, penne bolognaise and brownies while Jess took care of the mushroom soup, baked rice and potato salad.
The both of us woke up at bloody 8 am - and fortunately I wasn't nursing a hangover - and went together to Cold Storage at Centrepoint to get our groceries.
While shopping, we came across the most amusing thing:
Look at that! We found a food that combines both Jess's and my nicknames together! There couldn't be a cuter affirmation of our best-friendship!
We finally got back at 11 am lugging a crazy amount of groceries, and once we started cooking it became clear, as Jess put it, that we were making enough to feed an entire army today and tomorrow.
The guys were told to come at 2 pm, but they all turned up late at about 2:30 pm. Which didn't matter because Jess and I hadn't finished cooking yet.
So amidst much complaints that they were hungry and needed food fast, we finally got the guys settled down with Sockie on the couch, watching Starsky and Hutch, while Jess and I frantically cobbled our dishes together.
Food was finally served much to the satisfaction of all. C absolutely loved my salad rolls and couldn't get enough of my brownies (heh), R and J fell in love with Jess's baked rice and mushroom soup, and Jess scarfed down my pasta like it was going out of style while I stuffed myself with her potato salad.
Later, the guys brought out a nice lychee cake that they were sweet enough to get for me, even though our gathering was supposed to be for Christmas and not my birthday.
My cake!
My cake with candles lit
Pumpkin Flower and me
J and me
R and me
C and me. C totally loved Sockie and was lavishing him with cuddles and pats, and Sockie seemed to gravitate towards him too, which wasn't too much of a surprise since we often tease C about being a Jack Russell Terrier as well, since he's active and mischievous and ji siao.
J and me again
R and his cutie-pie smile
C trying his best not to look yandao
Jess and me with the present she and J got for me. Tommy Hilfiger's "Dreaming"! When I ripped open the present I was jumping for joy!
Later after we finished our food, R went off on a hot date he had leaving the rest of us, so we switched off all the lights and watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which was a fabulous movie.
So ended an equally fabulous birthday for me.
_________________________________________________
22nd DECEMBER
Now this was the day everyone in Pig Clan had been looking forward to - our Pig Clan annual Christmas gathering plus Jessie's and my combined birthday celebrations.
The Pigs came in full force, no less, and we had great fun as usual, but the most fun part had to be the present exchange and Jess and I were swamped in gifts.
Kevin and Jiefang very sweetly baked some glorious muffins for everyone, Luke brought red wine, Jess and I ordered pizza and chicken wings, and everyone ate and toasted each other.
The warmth and happiness running through the room, with all of us there together, was practically palpable. After a pretty tough year with school, work, my mum leaving for the States, and me living on my own, it absolutely warmed my heart to be together with all my best friends, celebrating happy occasions like birthdays and Christmas.
The 2 birthday girls toasting each other. Jess is in the gorgeous Zara dress that Pig Clan got her as her present. Doesn't she look fantastic? I love her in that dress!
Me surrounded by all my presents. I'm wearing the beautiful earrings Kokes got me, and on the table are chocolates from Kevin, an iPod cover from Yinghui, a Citigems pendant from Lindy, a wallet from Bryan, a make-up travel kit from Cindy, and the best, best, best gift of all:
An iPod Nano from the whole of Pig Clan.
When I opened it I literally screamed and jumped and teared up, it was something I had been wanting for so long and never in my wildest dreams did I expect that the Piglets would get it for me.
Me and Jess. This time it's Jess that's surrounded by all her presents. And this may sound narcissistic, but I heart my leggings.
Me and Cindy, who put the icing on my day by telling me I'd lost quite a lot of weight.
Another great day spent with great people, and I ended the day feeling absolutely loved and warmed by these fantastic buddies of mine.
_______________________________________________________
24th DECEMBER
After days of partying with friends, this was the day for family - my mum's family this time round.
I went to my uncle's condo where we had a barbeque going, and I joined my 4 little cousins in a bit of swimming before we launched headlong into the food that my 2 uncles painstakingly marinated, skewered, and grilled all by themselves.
The 4 boys have all grown tremendously and while playing with them I felt a little bit of melancholy come over me at the knowledge that they were growing up quickly and soon their childhood cuteness and innocence would be lost. Lijie's already 10, Junkai 9, Yonghao 7, and the baby Junwen is still a baby, turning 1 year old soon.
I resolved to spend more time with my maternal grandmother and the boys, and decided I would bring them out for a lunch and a trip to the zoo, which was what I'd been wanting to do for a long while but couldn't find the time.
My uncle made wine spritzers and egg nog and we all toasted Christmas in together, which, after a week of boozing crazily with friends, made for a nice, sedate change (though I admit I still prefer boozing with friends hahaha).
_________________________________________________
Last but not least, a big big thank you to all the people who gave me such a wondrous birthday and Christmas this year. The memories will always be cherished. Thanks guys.
posted by Sheena @ 10:09 PM
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