Back in Singapore! Gong Xi Fa Chai @ Hm

We went back to Singapore to celebrate Chinese New Year with the family and friends! The days leading up to the departure afternoon was really hectic as we rushed around to buy Aussie food for the family! One of the weirdest request is for Aussie ham - so we packed 3kg of meat in the luggage and brought the month's groceries back to Singapore! 19kg of mangoes and cherries, 4kg of choc, 2 loaves of bread, and some other miscellaneous groceries... packing sure was fun and Jem worried about excess baggage. We did, incidentally, go over weight by 4kg but the lady at the counter was nice. =)

We also had to eat up all the perishable food in the house..



Gie's first night in Singapore, was spent at Newton Hawker Centre, chomping on famous Singapore cuisine - Hokkien mee, fried carrot cake, char kuey teow, bbq chicken wings and refreshing sugar cane with lemon juice! Slurpp*** Jem spent his first night at Cheryl-Ann's birthday party catching up with everyone!


Galfriends - Pee, Jean and Trace!


Galpal Chezzy!

Chinese new year isn't complete without, of course, the annual Chinatown walkabout or more accurately, squeeze!




Janny jan jan


The girly lot!

By midweek, we were convinced that our time in Melbourne was spent training for meals in Singapore. The huge portions we had here, definitely meant for us that we could eat more yummy food back home! The family also made sure we ate our fill. Gie's grandparents brought her to People's park hawker centre where she pigged out on Chuey Kuey and the famous Ikan Bilis Yong Tau Foo. 2 hours later, they all had wontan noodle for lunch. Burp* hee

We also sneaked off one afternoon to gorge ourselves at Tiong Bahru food centre for more Singaporean goodies - Wontan mee, Chuey Kuey, You tiao, butterfly, fried carrot cake (again), chicken rice - we ate enough to feed 3 typical Singaporeans! Gie also brought home her favourite ang ku kuey! yummyy..



Chinese new year also involved visiting relatives' and collecting ang baos (red packets with some money in it for good luck!) We didn't manage to take too many pics during our visits but here's one with Melissa (Mel-hair!) who's pregnant and due in May! Congrats Mel!!



The grand finale to our short trip back was spent at Jem's house.. Jem had opened his house for friends to come gamble, eat and be merry, which is the essence of Chinese new year anyway! There were 2 tables of mahjong, 1 table of poker and 1 table of card games! It was really good seeing everyone and when the time came to say goodbye.. it was difficult and teary..

But now, we're back in Melbourne and the story continues... =)