Nasi Lemak @ Ling Chew and Vincent's

LING AND VINCENT INVITE US TO THEIR WANTIRNA HOME FOR New Year dinner along with two other families. The dinner is just great. Almost authentic. The company is fine and the conversations are interesting. We enjoy having a good yarn and discovering "who's who in the zoo". As it turns out there are many common friends amongst them. Sometimes it's comical.  

Dinner is quite a spread, there's the nasi lemak, of course. Ling uses basmati rice which is unusual but interesting. There's the timun, fried ikan bilis (but they don't look like ikan bilis), sambal (beautiful), boiled eggs, chicken curry, beer nuts and a dish cooked & brought by Kim; an excellent beef rendang. Oh, and cooked prawns, the Aussie way.

 

Nasi Lemak, my choice of dinner, love it! We finish dinner and get home real late about 11.30pm .... we have work tomorrow so we quickly get ourselves ready for bed! I go to bed and read a few chapters of Andy McNab's "Exit Wound". Recently I am into fictions. Unfortunately around 1.30am I start to have a heart burn, a real serious one.

This excess acid in my stomach has in the last 6 months subsided a lot as I now normally have dinner around 5pm. It's kind of worked for me.

This night, a full blown volcano is spilling out magma in my stomach. Not good. I go downstairs to get a glass of water and try to sleep. More heart burn up my esophagus. I drink 1/2 a glass of milk but no joy. More toss and turn in bed; I take a 40mg Somac and normally that would fix the problem. But this time the extra acid was still welling up inside.  OMG.

I toss and turn some more and at around 5am I drink a glass of water mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoonful of Metamucil fibre and the heart burn slowly trails off. OMG I did not get a proper shut eye!  

That's what happened for me for my 1st day of NY.....

First Day Of 2009

Melbourne Welcomes 2009

Jan 1 2009. First day of a New Year.

We had a NYE family dinner at Pat's. Being a pot luck party all of us brought cooked food and it was a great time of sharing and eating together as a family and to usher in the New Year.

Mom, dad and Sin brought chili prawns and VB (Aussie beer).

Lee & Sis brought dry chicken curry, home made pandan ice cream (yummy) and almond/cherry jelly.

David & Pat cooked nasi lemak, Teow Chew style tofu, boiled eggs, and the all time favorite chicken liver. They provided soft drinks, nuts and red wine.

Jack and Mai brought kangkong belacan.

Victor and Katrina brought a beautifully rich Lasagna.

And SM cooked fried ikan bilis with peanuts and seaweed for those who do not eat spicy foods, traditional chili ikan bilis and she baked a wonderful strawberry cream swiss roll. We also contributed Guinness Extra Stout mixed with Pure Blonde beer - Malaysian style! Once a Malaysian always a Malaysian. A wonderful drink to start before the dinner.

Food is always big in our family (and I suspects in all families) and during occasions like this everybody just tuck in heartily and there is always plenty of food to go around and for take away. If not for the ample amount of foods laid out on the table we would have finished them all.....

The Big Feast

Dish Of The Night: Chicken Curry

Another Favorite Dish: Chili Prawns

Nasi Lemak Will Not Be So Named Without Ikan Bilis

In no time everybody had seconds and more. There were conversations around the table and in the open plan lounge and we were all happy to share the company. The kids always found something to do; played video games, mucking around, and joining in with the adults sometimes when they felt like it.

The Patriarch, Great Grandpa

The Matriarch, Great Grandma

Tucking In

Baby Riana, Mom and Grandma
The Newly Wed

The Beginning Of The Family Tree

The Kids

The " You're Not My Mom " Funny Guy (See Video)

Sis Irene as usual spent a lot of time with granddaughter baby Riana enjoying her and basking in her presence; happy and thrilled to be a grandma. In respect of traditions, we opened business with a game of Black Jack and I was as usual the banker and dealer. Luck was on my side and I won $20+ collecting wins around the table.

Bad Habits Die Hard

The Hand Of The Night

A Freak Hand: Banker had 18, And 4 Other Bets On The Table Were 18 Even. All of them by nephew, Jack.

Soon the New Year count down was in progress on the telly and we welcome in the new year..... 2009 is going to be tough for every body and I hoped our family and other working families ride through this difficult period without too much blood on the floor. My thoughts also went out to friends who are in Australia, Malaysia and other parts of the world, wishing them a peaceful year ahead, and that they enjoy the moment .....

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!

New Year Count Down # 1




Family # 1




Family # 2
(More videos on You Tube "Chen Family NYE Dinner")

Last Day of 2008

It's the end of 2008. By all account 2008 was a tumultuous year. A disastrous year for the world . As for me, it was not a very good year. Everybody knows that 2009 will be a watershed year. Many have lost their jobs and income this year. Many more will walk down the same path. There is one American saying: if your neighbor loses his job it's a recession but if you lose your job as well, it's a depression.

In the end many millions of working families will lose their homes, their retirement income and savings, some losing even their families; caused partly by this global financial crisis created by Man; and Man's insatiable addiction to Debt.

I have taken some time off in 2008. I am pursuing my passion and see where that leads me. Life nowadays is a lot less stressful (I qualify by saying that positive stresses are good for you!) and I find I am more often than not, less worried about events and circumstances.

Though at times things seem to be not going as well (shit happens #$@%), on balance it's an acceptable arrangement for me for the time being. Which brings me to another topic:- New Year's Resolutions. I am sure I will have to do some hard thinking in the new year to review my perspectives of life and options that maybe opened to me ..... I feel that the early part of a new year is truly a great time for everybody to take stock of one's life. I welcome it. I think everybody should have some quiet moments of reflection and review. Don't you?

On this last day of the year I count as my great blessing that my family is with me. We are going to meet on the last day of 2008 and celebrate the coming of a new 2009. And hopes of a better year for all in all aspects of your life .....

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL !