The Yeti's parents in Singapore!

Long time no seen, huh? We have been very busy recently as my parents were in Singapore from 4 to 12 February. It was nice to see them, and I feel they had a good time in Singapore...

But let's start with the beginning: their arrival at 6.30pm in Changi

Of course they were tired but we still managed to go out for a meal after checking them in the Amara Hotel. It's a nice hotel that I would advise to people who have enough budget... Our first night was in honour of my Tinker's culture as we had Peranakan food! A little place called "Blue Ginger" on Tanjong Pagar Road very cosy and friendly. I was pleased to taste some of the delicacies and I think Mum and Dad were just too tired to really understand what was going on. My Dad even let me pay the bill (the only one of their stay, but still it says something!). So Ting and I decided to let them go to bed...

The hotel had put them in a room that had a really high window. At first when I saw it I told them they should ask to be changed, but "no, don't worry, it's fine". Well they should have listened to my advice. At 4am, Dad couldn't sleep because of some air-con noise from outside... He was tired from the trip and I don't know how he managed to stay calm, and so he phoned the reception. The hotel manager on duty came immediately to the room, and to my parent's big surprise immediately said "ok, we change your room". As stunned as they were they followed through the corridors of the hotel with the bell man carrying the heavy cases and were put up in a really nice room with a beautiful view... on buildings! You're in Singapore, what do you expect? I'd still like to give my thumbs up to the Amara Hotel who's reaction was unheard of from French people.

The next day, my parents came to meet me at Raffles Place where I work. Dad wanted to get some tailor made suits, and Mum wanted to visit the office. We also had to get a prepaid phone card for them as Dad's Blackberry failed him... You'd have to check the details with his IT manager.

First stop was at Tony Doulatram's at the Arcade. He's the tailor where I usually go to get some suits done, and he's good at selling things... From one suit wanted, my dad finally left with 2 suits, 1 pants and a few shirts! They were ready within one week.

That afternoon they went to rest at the hotel, jet-lag takes at least 2 days to get over. And at night we had dinner with the Chew family at the Raffle town Club. My parents discovered the wonders of Chinese new year in Singapore (Yusheng, dried oysters that we all nearly spat on the table, except Ting's Dad who had two helpings!). The first dinner reuniting two families is always awkward at first, but soon everyone had relaxed around the table and the evening was very enjoyable. Ting and I were relieved to see that our parents got along together, we were kind of fearing some culture clash... But the second thing would be to leave them together without us to help translating (Singlish to English and Franglish to Singlish that is...) which happened the next day as they all went to the zoo together while we were working!

You can see on the picture that it all went pretty fine although the hats are not exactly matched.

My parents told me after that they had a great time at the zoo, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that the crocodile really impressed both of them. As soon as Dad puts his pics online I'll give you the link, but once again the IT manager has to get, unwillingly, involved.

We were not allowed to participate that day at all and we met my parents again the next day to visit the Mandarin Oriental Hotel which will hold our wedding... I think this will be for an other post... Be patient!

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year came and went like the breeze. We are effectively still celebrating Chinese New Year. We still have all the goodies stocked at home in case visitors come by any time, and this will continue through out the 15 days even though we're all back at work now. Well, at least for some of us. A couple of my friends, have this whole week off since Monday.

The day typically starts off pretty early for my family. The reason is simple. My mum has a HUGE family and if we want to see everyone, then we need about 3 to 4 days dedicated to just visiting. That's what we used to do at least when we were still younger. Now that we've all grown up, and since some of the relatives are not around anymore, there's less people to visit. So about 2 days would do it. What I love about this day.... is the food. Eat Eat Eat Eat Eat! I love it! Allow me to take you through our Chinese New Year, traditions, and show you my family.

We arrived at my parent's place at 10am. And to Julien's pleasant surprise, he got his first 2 ang baos (red packet filled with money) of the day, from my grandmother, and my aunt. Just to elaborate briefly on ang bao giving. During Chinese New Year, there's a lot of transfering of wealth from the eldest generation to the youngest. Also, once you're married, you're obliged to give out ang baos as well. That means if I have a cousin who is older but isn't married, I am obliged to give her an ang bao too as long as I am married. So it's my last year to collect my wonderful red packets this 2009. Next year, I'll be contributing like the rest of the other "mature" adults. The colour red is a symbol of good luck. So when you give out an ang bao, you're actually wishing the person good luck and wealth. Even the well wishes ie GONG XI FA CAI mean "Congratulations you're rich". These little red packets are usually given during a celebration ie, festive seasons, baby showers, wedding celebrations, birthdays, house warmings, etc.

Julien's first 2 ang baos of the day

It's common that we would dress up in our new clothes during this day, and like I mentioned we do house cleaning, throw out old things, buy new things, to symbolise forgetting the past or old and welcoming the new. Also for the house to be in good clean condition when people come visit. Because, you're all dolled up on that day, it's also the day that you take the most pictures of yourself with everyone else.

My sisters Min, Rachel and I

Julien with my sisters

My parents

The Family

I can't remember who it was, but someone said, "let's do crazy", and we kind of got a little carried away after with the photo taking....

It started out funny


Then it just got weird

So we decided to be a little more serious and start our ang bao collection process! In my family, we wish the older generation by age. Hence we go to the oldest person in my family, my grandmother, then my aunt, then my parents. And we wish them in order of our age too - I go first, then Julien, then Min, then Rachel. When wishing someone, we offer them oranges which is a symbol of gold and fortune. They in turn will return the wish with two other different oranges and an ang bao! This is a first for Julien.

Julien paying respect to my parents with oranges

My parents returning the well wish with different oranges and an ang bao

In this household, we pay our respects to the elders in the following order: my aunt to my granny, my parents to my granny, my parents to my aunt (she's my dad's older sister), Us (Julien, Min, Rachel and I) to my granny, Us to my aunt, Us to my parents. After all that was done, our next stop as every other year would be my mum's side of the family.

The day's just starting and we're already rich

I had previously sent Julien some pictures of my Uncle's (Mum's brother) house in previous years, but when he actually saw it for himself, he couldn't help but blurt out "My God it's a museum!". My uncle's got all sorts of furniture put together in a very eclectic sort of style.

Like a scene out of a movie

So in the same manner, we wish everyone in order of generation and age. Only it takes longer in this family because my mum is the 2nd youngest child of 8 children. In this household, we have my maternal grandmother's generation, my mother's generation, my generation, Rachel's (my sister) generation, then the generation of my nieces and nephews. 5 generations in one location! Imagine that. Because the family is so huge, we tend to forget who's who sometimes.

Julien wishing my maternal grandmother

My maternal grandmother

What I really look forward to apart from meeting my other cousins whom I see once a year, is to sit with my family and have steamboat together. Steamboat is a style of eating something.. almost like fondue for the French. Only it's a big bowl of clear broth, and we cook raw meat and seafood in this broth, which is great because I love seafood. Julien loves it!

Steamboat

I'm getting hungry

My Uncle being the merry host

Having a meal together

Of course I had finished my meal already since I came early
so no need vie for seats at the steamboat

Every year, the spotlight falls on someone. Either someone's getting married, or someone brought a new boyfriend, or someone got pregnant, or someone did well in school, etc. This year, the spotlight was on my nephew, Marcus. You might have already read about him in our previous post. He's grown so much in just 4 months (October 2008 - Jan 2009)!

October 2008 - January 2009

At least we all know where he got his good looks from

Everyone, and I mean everyone couldn't keep their hands off him. Funny, watching my relatives going gaga over him, made me wonder if I was pinched, smothered, squeezed, poked, passed around like a piece of meat when I was a baby too. Even Julien caved in and had to hold Marcus for a bit too. He was just too chubby to go unnoticed. Marcus wasn't all too happy though.

We stayed a long time at my uncle's house chatting and catching up with cousins that we only get to see or meet once a year. We can arrange to meet up more often, but somehow we just never got to it. I'm still happy to be able to see them at least once a year though.

My cousins: Min, Justine, Me, Jasmine (Marcus's mother)

I'm glad Julien enjoyed himself (He's wearing Marcus's bib)

Next stop was another relative's house (I can't remember how we're related) which we visit every year. This year some of my relatives in this household went away to China during the Chinese New Year for a holiday (I think) so there were not that many people around. So we didn't stay very long. Julien seemed to be impressed with the houses we've visited so far.

Our last stop for the day, was to my mum's aunty's house. This old grandaunt of mine simply adores my mother. The story is that mum was almost given away to this aunt when she was a baby to be adopted as her daughter (don't ask me why, I can't understand this system myself either), but because my mum could not stop crying, she gave her back to my grandmother. And she regretted it so much, having seen my mum grow up to be the beautiful and successful woman that she is today. She will tell us the same story every other year. My granduncle (her husband) says he's lost count of the number of times she's repeated this story each time my mother comes to visit.

It is at this grand aunty's house that the second highlight of the day commences. Steamboat round 2!!! Good steamboat takes many factors: The stock (has to be flavourful. That's why it's usually precooked days before), the seafood and meat (has to be fresh so we don't get a tummy ache), the chilli sauce (very very important). Home cooked food is always the best. After that last stop, Julien officially declared he needed to go on a diet (that he never started).

We had so much fun we didn't want the day to stop. So we met up with some more friends after at Zouk and partied some more. Chinese New Year was great fun!

To more happy moments like this through out the year of the ox.

Oriental Classical

What I'm listening to now: Ashitaka Sekki by Joe Hisaishi.

He's my favourite composer/performer/conductor/muse. A musical genius in my opinion. He is best known for his work with animator Hayao Miyazaki, having composed many scores for many of his films including Spirited Away (2001), Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Princess Mononoke (1997), My Neighbour Totoro (1988), and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). He is also recognized for the soundtracks he has provided for filmmaker 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, including Dolls (2002), Kikujiro (1999), Hana-Bi (1997), Kids Return (1996), and Sonatine (1993).

In all my 27 years of my life, I've always considered myself an eclectic. I like almost all genres of music. There's none that I really dislike or can't listen to. But recently, I realised that I really really really really really love Classical music. I've studied music when I was younger, and I always had taken an interest with the piano. European classical is very good. But somehow, Oriental Classical is able to move something deeper than just my heart. Mainly because the instruments used are different. They make the notes come alive. I hope it moved you as much as it did me. Enjoy!

Ashitaka Sekki



Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite



One Summer's Day (Spirited Away)



Joe Hisaishi's also composed the score for a foreign film, Le Petit Poucet in 2001.

La Lune Brille Pour Toi



On a seperate note, I love Yann Tiersen's compositions too! Vive la France!