Surprise Call

Exactly 24 hours ago my Aunty Linda called from Tg. Malim. I used to stay with her and her family for two years when I was working for her husband.

Before she went to Down Under early last month, she texted me to inform me about her trip and since she asked me how I was, I shared with her what I should do in one of my situations. Actually I already know what I should do but I just want her opinion.

She said she was going to reply but since it was already the eve of her trip, she did not get a chance to do that and therefore she called instead.

She told me her opinion, which is the same thing that I wanna do. Now is having the guts to spill out what is in my heart all these years and some people are not going to like what I am going to say.

Well too bad for them. I have to be selfish sometimes since some people can just take me for granted all these years and if they could, for the rest of my life.

Dinner at Welcome Seafood Restaurant

My cousin Yvonne and her boyfriend Matt arrived in KK from Los Angeles via Hong Kong yesterday. They are staying at my cousin’s house in Signal Hill Park, Likas. She is a lawyer and he is a judge.

Tomorrow they would be going to SDK until next Wednesday. When they come back from SDK, they would be staying overnight at Nexus Resort, Karambunai on Thursday night and they would be going back to LA via Hong Kong next Sunday.

Since time is kinda tight for them, our family invited them for dinner tonight.

I still remember Sophia telling me this restaurant a few years ago but we never been before until tonight. During mum’s birthday last month, we were going to go but changed plans at the last minute.

When we arrived, the restaurant was about half full.

Half way through dinner, some customers had to wait their turns to be seated.

We had the following delicious meal.

I even had the juice from the Steamed Fish. The captain was kind enough to pour them into the small bowl for me to savour. Yums, though a bit salty because I finished my rice by then.

Yvonne brought the following goodies for us. Thanks gal.

Late Granduncle

Tonight I added one of my second cousins (MN) from Hong Kong in my Facebook. I had only met her twice since I had only been to HK twice in my lifetime.

I discovered from her that my late granduncle (H.D. Rumjahn ie. MN’s grandfather) was one of the Hong Kong Tennis Association (HKTA) Hall of Frame Enshrinees.

H.D. Rumjahn
He was an outstanding doubles specialist, and teamed up with his cousin, S.A. Rumjahn, to capture five Hong Kong National Grass Court Championships between 1927 and 1940, and was also a finalist in 1938 and 1941. Although competing predominantly in doubles, he did experience some success in singles, capturing the Championships in 1937, and finishing runner-up in 1936 and 1938. (copy and paste from http://www.tennishk.org/AboutUs/HKTAHallofFame/tabid/132/language/en-US/Default.aspx)

Would that explain why I love to watch this game so much and even played it before? No, it does not really because he was an uncle by marriage. The mystery continues …

Anyway it is great to find out something I previously did not know about.

Steamboat Dinner at Four Seasons

Our distant relatives would be going home to Macau tomorrow on the 7.15a.m. flight, after being in Sandakan for the past couple of days.

Therefore tonight we went for steamboat dinner at Four Seasons, Kompleks Asia City.

During the daytime, this restaurant offers dim sum and nighttime steamboat. I ate the dim sum before and tonight was the first time I tried the steamboat.

The choices available in this restaurant are as follows.

1. Cooking - share or individual. We opted for the latter.

2. Soup - chicken, tomyam, pork rib or herbal. I chose pork rib.

3. Buffet style (as in eat all you can) or order by plates. We chose buffet style.

Since we opted for buffet style, everyone can choose whatever he or she wanted to eat.

Among some of the food I chose were as follows.

I sat next to Uncle Hon. He also cooked for me. I hardly walked to the buffet table the whole night. I could not eat much since we did not start eating until 8p.m., way past my dinner time.

But we still ate the most on our table as shown by the trays in front of us.

We chit-chatted until about 10.0p.m. before going home.

Uncle Hon kept on inviting us to visit them in Macau.

Dinner at Mayflower Restaurant

At 4p.m. I drove Aunty Alice to Terminal 2 to welcome her brothers in law and their families arriving from Macau. Besides us, two other relatives also waited for the visitors to arrive at the airport.

The flight was delayed for 45mins eventhough earlier before I left the house, the person at the Airport Arrival Information Centre told me the flight was on time.

After meeting the six visitors from Macau, I drove home while Aunty Alice joined her relatives to go to Likas Square Apartment. I came home to rest for a while and slept for 20mins before driving to Mayflower Restaurant. One of their relatives (CKP) who went to fetch them is one of the partners at Mayflower Restaurant. CKP invited me to join him and his relatives for dinner at the VIP Room 2.

When I arrived outside the restaurant, there were already a lot of cars. I had to park almost at the end of the block. As I went upstairs to the First Floor, I realised there was a wedding banquet being held there. I had to pass through the guests of the wedding party to go into the VIP room.

I thought I was late but I was the first one to arrive. I had my mobile phone to keep me occupied – playing a game while listening to the radio. After about twenty minutes, CKP’s elder sister arrived with her three children and we chatted before the rest arrived.

Prawns

Pumpkin Shark Fin Soup

Suckling Pig

Suckling Pig

Lettuce

Fish in 'Asam' Sauce

Treasure Duck

'Ko Lo Yuk'

Steamed Beancurd

Eventhough I was an outsider, I enjoyed being part of this family reunion. We finished almost all the food, even food from the other table since there were only three adults and four kids below ten eating there.

Before we went home, they also included me in taking the family photos. I felt embarrassed.

Dinner at Garden Seafood Restaurant, Tg. Aru

Tonight cousin Seekan treated all of us for dinner on the eve of his departure back to London tomorrow.

The menu is as follows.

1. Poached Prawns.

2. Sweet and Sour Fish.

3. Wet Butter Crabs.

4. ‘Kangkung’ in ‘Belacan’.

5. Stir Fried Deer Meat with Ginger and Shallots.

6. ‘Kung Po’ Mussels with Cashew Nuts.

7. Steamed Elephant Trunk Shellfish.

8. Deep Fried Mantis Prawns.

Everything was finished as dinner did not begin until 8.15p.m.

Pound Sterling

This evening after work, I went to Marina Court Condominium to fetch cousin Seekan and his gf Marie to check-in into Pacific Sutera Hotel.

When we arrived at the counter, there were three foreigners in front of us and four ladies supposed to be serving at the counter. We waited for about ten minutes until one of the concierges came over and told me to to line up at one of the counters. But the lady in front of that counter told me to wait. Frankly speaking I think the service needs improvement eventhough we were not in a hurry.

One of the ladies directed us to the counter at the far right. After the check-in procedures were done, the lady showed me a piece of paper which I had to sign. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the hotel had reserved the room one night short. I told the Reservation Department Monday to Wednesday night. The person attending my booking call must have heard Monday to Wednesday.

Next the lady asked for credit card. Seekan asked me whether I wanted to pay since the booking was under my name. I told him I can if only he will reimburse me the same amount in Pound Sterling. Haha He quickly took out his credit card and passed it to the lady. He was then asked to key in the credit card pin number.

The room allocated to them is on the 9^th Floor overlooking the golf course. No doubt the ocean view would be nicer but that would mean more $.

Dinner at Restoran Sri Melaka

This morning I was chatting with my cousin Seekan on MSN and asking him what he wanted to eat for dinner since we were going to have dinner with him and his girlfriend Marie.

They had been having seafood the past two nights and he mentioned that he wanted to eat Malay food. At first I thought of bringing them to Rasa Nyonya but Sharon Lai told me the food was not that great when she went there for dinner with the Alpha Team during Deepavali.

So I decided to bring them to Restoran Sri Melaka. We went to fetch them at Marina Court Condominium where they are staying with cousin Christopher and Marianne.

Altogether there were nine of us including three children. Since the upstairs of the restaurant was closed, we had to settle for a long table that can sit ten people.

The menu was as follows.

1. Lemon Chicken. Quite nice.

2. Sambal Sotong. A bit on the spicy side.

3. Sayur Manis with Dried Shrimp. Very fresh and crunchy.

4. Rendang Beef. Mixture of soft and tough meat but quite tasty.

5. Asam Fish Head. Too spicy and therefore lots of leftover.

6. Black Pepper Mutton. Quite soft and tasty.

We had to pass the dishes around all night since we were not sitting on a round table with the ‘Lazy Susan’.

It was good to catch up with Seekan after not seeing him for three years and to get to know Marie.

We went for a car ride to 1 Borneo, the city and Tanjung Aru Beach after dropping mum, Aunty Alice and Barnabas. We bade the lovebirds goodbye outside Centrepoint where they were intending to watch the movie James Bond.