Year 2008!

its time again for recall... to be thankful for all the happy events in 2008! things that i love, food that was great, pictures that i love, lessons learnt, places i have been to, dates that were important... everything that was good in 2008!

the only place gx and i travel to this year is to Koh Samui with a group of good friends. with the other 2 couples, its the first time we travel with so many friends. in KSM,we experienced some new stuff such as for the first time we did trekking and island hopping but it was our 2nd time we snokelled. then went riding the atv for the first time, on my 3rd round, i actually jumped off my vehical and buang my machine against the coconut tree! i was a Stunt-woman!

i have to say this althou A mit be reminded ... but i have too!!! bcos it was a classic joke during our tour ... the english translation for qian shou guanying = thousand hands buddha vs hold hands buddha!

i love the pic of us letting the lucky lantern into the sky! i love the moment when we were resting on an island after lunch cos that the most romantic time of 2008 i had with gx! while i sat onthe swing facing the blue calm sea, gx sang me the song xiao qin ke. also we had an Unforgetable time in KSM bcos we all had great fun with fireworks! FIREWORKS that belonged to the 6 of us! it was fun! thank you Helen, Soh, Agnes and Mic for the good times at KSM.

then not long gx was out from the army, holding on to his long-time no see pink ic. then came cny. for the first time in 10 years, gx was not restricted with the army work schedule for cny. he used to have to work on certain days during cny. for gx family shot and the huge family shot, we used our camera stand for the first time! it was great cos we dun get anyone cut off!

love the cousins shot we took during cny. too bad nicole was asleep. on the 2nd day of cny, for the first time we had lion dance troop in the house. it brought alot of festive mood to our house and guests. my m family celebrated the cny 7th day. all thanks to aunt o and uncle m. i think with grandpa leaing us... they wanted the family to be even more closer. they gave us a very expensive seafood treat! lobster sashimi, dipping lobster into hot soup and lobster porridge... alaskan crabs... it was an unbelievable treat!

another wonderful thing that my m family did for the first time was to go concert together! Sam Hui's concert at indoor stadium. first time for me walking to my ground level seat at indoor to watch my idol! i grew up with Sam Hui songs!

when Sam got off the stage to mingle with the audience, i went to the front, my hubby didnt stop me and i managed to be a lucky one to get a peck on my cheek! my mum was surprised that i managed to get close to him! then in 2008, thou i didnt get to go to eason's concert, lucky my dear fren dap brought me to see him at the cd-signing session. up close and personal and i even told eason that he is awesome and he said thanks with his signature big smile! a BIG thank you to you dap for making my year special!

talking about my dear fren dap! this year we went out alot during my hols! we started using her different lomo cameras and my polaroid cam to take pics of ourselves. i named the fun days on my old blog, wednesday with dap and with the labels crazy shoot. somehow we meet mostly wednesday! she kept me company thru my summer hols! this summer hols, gx and i didn't get to travel as he started working in his new job.

we would plan our trips to get our meals and then visit some interesting places like Old School, Art Museum at Robertson Quay and even to the National Museum to see the red clothed up David. Dap took great pictures of me and i loved the little explorations we had! from the trips we found interesting shops. i like the chocolate shop that we chanced upon in haji lane! love that jelly that we ate. love the nasi padang, the indonesian food, dianxin and the teatimes we had!

above pics was taken on the day dap and i went for chocolate-making class. first we had french breakfast before class and after class we had italian lunch at portsdown road! then celebrated my dear fren's bdae with Mr Tan, dinner at handles bar and drinks at villabali. thanks to dap who took off day in nov, during my thanksgiving holiday, went searching for my evening dress for my sis' wedding! then in dec, dap attended another class with me. together with joyce, we baked european xmas cookies! thanks a mil for spending your precious time with me!

some happy events that happened in 2008 - my long-time gf ser and gam got married! she had her wedding in switzerland! then she held a wedding dinner here. very happy for my dear fren!

as for my group of 5 gfs, we had a pyjamas party! it was a farewell party to send wendy our well-wishes! she was going to live in australia for 2 years with her family. i hope she is doing great and enjoying her life with her hubby and 2 little gals! for the potluck i did the mixed berry pannacotta. for this year, i did this dessert the most! 2nd to this dessert is prob the philippine fruit dessert that i learnt from my collegue V. thru the home parties i attended at V, i have learnt many new dishes!

in year 2008, i was very happy for Mr & Mrs Soh! they had a very healthy baby boy! it was great news! as for my family, we had a very busy year in 2008! for the cousins we had more nights out together. we went to watch movies, eat supper after activities night out. We did alot of bowling sessions!

from practice it became competitive bowling among ourselves. we always have 2 groups and whichever group loses had to treat supper! then we were all preparing for our family's bowling competition! after the family bowling, we switched to karaoke and prawning!

then we were busy with lots of bdae celebration in the family and we gathered to watch olympics, play tabletennis with the free table i got, watch F1 together! this year for my own family we had alot more eat outs together.

we had many more events in the family in year 2008! its been so busy this year with lots more themed parties! for my 31st bdae, ann arranged a karaoke session as a present, just sis, aunt a, ann and me! then i had my yearly bbq session where i give the family a treat. thanks to the bbq boys who make the party possible! i had a jelly agar agar carebear and i love being swamped by the kids when we blow the candles!

gave my mum a bouquet i bundle up by myself on my bdae... gx brought me out to have our little own bdae celebration at Wines company and he gave me an agnes b tiffany-blue wallet for my bdae! my dear bro and gf cooked up a great dinner as a bdae gift on my actual bdae. yes everything on the table is all cooked by them!

my bro cooked mee goreng, chilli crab, they fried the buns too and prawns!
best cousins shot taken in 2008!

gx got me 2 cakes. one to cut with my family and one with his family! then we celebrated mothers day and fathers day (didnt load fotos!) love this all-cousins photo! think i was taken on one of the party! then we had a stayover at L bdae party. bcos the boys wanted to give L a surprise and now they all know how to sing the cantonese bdae song!

after the party at one degree 15 nova, the cousins were very lucky! we got to stay overnite on the boat! well while the rest drank and played cards, ann and i slept! then the next day, the cousins brought the 3 little ones to underwater world.

we cousins got to stay overnite on boat cos we dun get to travel out, island hopping the next day. the adults with the bdae gal and nesa get to cruise on the waters while we had an outing at sentosa. then to end the party we jumped into the waters!

closely after L's bdae, in june we had family bowling competition which was very competive. then we had a hello kitty themed party for nesa. also for her party we cooked thai and vitmanese food! we tried many new dishes for this party!

the following Sat, we had a surprise bdae party for ann. lucky her, my aunt threw this party at Mandrin orchard mezzabar to make her happy! gx and i ordered a huge bouquet as bdae gift for ann! in return, ann threw a karaoke party for the family! endless events!

we brought nesa and L out for movies and we end up at ritz carlton for tea, a treat from aunt K. July was alittle quieter and i spent alot of time with dap during july! then again starting with mum's bdae in sept, parties started once again! for mum's bdae it was not a surprise cos i told mum not to cook... she was just very puzzled then that i wasn't preparing anything in her kitchen at all... i arranged a potluck party for her where everyone bought food for her!

also everyone was in polo! as my mum is always in polo, we arranged everyone to turn up in polo tees! decorated the cake with loads of strawberries and only pink candles to brighten the ice-cream cake! then at the end of sept, we had a great double-themed party. L had a superhero party and the twins had a princess party. it was great that we gals got to doll up in pretty dresses and the boys played a great part by dressing as the baddies! we even had a mummy! it was a great dressed up party!

then came october where my dearest hubby turned 30! he had his biggest bdae present! BABY! i was oredi 7th week pregnant! On oct 5th we tested with a homekit and we were over the moon. then we went to the gynae the next day to confirm that i was expecting! we were very excited and thrilled with the news! told our parents the good news and they were all very happy! i threw gx a surprise army themed party, where everyone wore green, khaki or brown. with ann and the kids help, we decorated the very nice white chocolate macadamia nut cake from secret recipe. of cos it was army themed! thanks to dap, we found the army toys and props for the cake!

our family's first halloween party! my aunt really decorated the place! it was another great dressed up party and we had lots of great family shots! was glad i had this maternity zebra prints dress for the event! for the first time the kiddos did tricks or treating!

the best things that happened to me in 2008 was to find Palate Sensations. i fell in love with not only the hands-on session in this cooking, baking school, it was the environment surrounding the school! this place is like a little out-of-town, quiet little place that i enjoy my weekends whenever i have class! the only savoury class i attended - tapas classs. the best dessert i have learnt from class has to be the mixed berry pannacotta!

also from my 1st lesson, restaurant plated desserts, i made my 1st chocolate souffles and it was great to learn crepe suzette! but i have yet to try this on my own at home, esp now that i am pregnant! cos this has liquor in it! then i carried on taking the basic baking class! 4 classes and when i completed the 4 modules, i got a cert!

1st class - i made tartlets! fruit and chocolate tarts. with the excess shortcrust pastry, i made little hearts! choux pastry got me really excited! i made a batch of elaires and cream puffs! i even got gx to try piping the cream into the puffs! it was good to learn making the strawberry charlotte and the genoise cake!

then dap took a class with me. we learnt to make 3 different kinds of chocolate goodies, bonbons, truffles and nama choco. then i attended a tart and pie demostrating class by Chef Pang from Caneles! get to bring all the tarts home to share with gx!

i made my first baking/cooking sales... a collegue ordered the mango pannacotta from me for her son's party. she loved it! i was happy to have made my first sales ever! i signed up for quite a few classes but i had to cancel them as during my first trimester, i wasnt feeling very well. when i got over the 1st trimester, was pretty excited and gathered 2 other good buddies to go for the european xmas cookie class. it was great that i got to attend the class and was glad my friends came along!

the good things of 2008! the best chocolate cake eaten in 2008 has to be the one i had with dap at pantry marmalade. chocolaty chocolate, so rich this has to be shared! another great find would be the cold durian pudding my sil introduced this to me when i was pregnant! loved it! but too bad i can't eat anymore of this during this pregnancy! orders from my gynae.

my favourite find was the avocado drink! love this indonesian style drink! i had this 3 times within the week i found this drink! then there is this favourite jap kuehkueh i loved and my dear fren dap loves this alot! i owe her a session of trying to make this dessert!

thanks to helen and soh, i got to try the best korean bbq! this was great! near to the west... opposite haw par villa. must try! 2008 is defintely about crabs and durians! i have endless durians when the season was in! my fil was so sweet to keep buying them for 2 durian addicts which is my sil and me! he loves durian alot too! as for crabs, we had it on cny 7th day celebration, my bro cooked for me on my bdae, dad's bdae, mum's bdae and aunt o's bdae! the most interesting crab i ate in 2008 has to be salt-baked crab and alaskan crab stirred fried in foi gras! the cutest sweet i ever did this year was these candy that taste very sweet but they were the cutest i have ever done!

one of my favourite and meaningful beautiful gift i have received in 2008 has to be this lady bug from florence, italy. my sil gave this to me and i loved it cos there is a little baby lady bug on the big mummy one. its really pretty and good omen! this year i spent alot on clothes and bags! most expensive buy has to be a blue burberry bag from japan. my favourite pair of shoes has to be this pair of gladiators from river island but too bad i only got to wear it for less than 5times! now that i am pregnant, its difficult to wear this pair of shoes out.

the product i fell in love with and must have is this almond oil! its for my baby bump and it helps to firm skin and prevents stretched marks. yet to try the clarins body products given to me by my aunt o during xmas! feel so pampered everytime gx helps to rub the oil on my baby bump! the next update would be the busiest month of year 2008. december seems to the busiest! cos events were one after another!

in november, started helping mum and sis to settle some wedding stuff and when dec hit, alot more had to be done. the cousins were giving cupcakes as wedding gift for sis' big day. we arranged a meetup to try to select cupcake flavours. we had sis guodali and then once we hit the eve of sis wedding, went to get flowers from far east floral with aunt and mum. aunt k and i made floral arrangement to decorate the house.

for the very first time ever i had to pack a bag to attend wedding! uncle m gave sis 6rooms as wedding gift. the whole family gota stayover after the wedding dinner so we had to pack our bags! my little sis is married! a big happy event for the year end! from 5am till midnite we were busy wih sis big day! the only event i was incharged was the little gals walking into the rom ceremony. the little flower bouquets was a collaboration with aunt k!

the very next day after the wedding, ann & i got the kiddos a party at build-a-bear. gx and i got our little baby's first teddy bear! we threw ben a surprise cake-cutting session to wrap up the party at build-a-bear.

then on the very next day, sunday 21st, we attended a surprise bdae party for uncle j! 3 in a row for most family members and for some of us it continue to monday 22nd! the aunts with their kiddos, together with ann and me ate at disney natural. on 23rd, went to chop of my hair! then had lunch with nesa at out of the pan. the little gal was thrilled with the high seat near the fountain and she loved eating the strawberry crepe!

the last baking session for 2008 was the cupcake session with joyce. it was great to have nesa's help! she has grown so much and she knows what to do everytime i give her instructions! baked for gx's collegues for the first time and was glad it brought xmas joy to his office!

our very first family xmas ever, we had santa clau! we were so lucky that we even had 2 elves and to top it we had a reindeer too at the party! it was magical and great! it was so childlike and i enjoyed myself alot! our family shots were great! very colourful! and with aunt o efforts, all of us had gifts! i am glad i pass on the party planning baton to the boys! they did a great job and brought the kids and adults alot of joy!

xmas dance at the end of the party by the new party planning team was entertaining! will update the last dinner of 2008 in my next entry! all the above detailed entries can be found in my old blog http://elsiethng.blogspot.com/. i had a fantastic year and byebye 2008!