Let's start on Saturday 22nd April - Dinner that night was at Spice & Rice (Rama's Indian Restaurant). Present were Jinny, KH, Sue Khoon, Celina, her friend Jo-Han, Jo and myself. Stuffed, we proceeded to Soho's for drinks and were joined by Mel & Stacy. All in all, a fun night eventho Yan's whereabouts were not known.
We've all been feeling the absence of our previous maid. This new maid hardly lives up to the high standards set and needless to say, that has added stress to all. Work has taken up the most part of my last two weeks; hence the Labour Day break on 1st May was much needed. Some of our friends met for supper on Saturday night (29th April) - we had porridge at a place called "Da Ban" on Jalan Zainal Abidin (formerly Yahudi Road). 'Yahudi' being Malay for Jew, the road was named for the Jewish cemetery located somewhere in the middle.
We got some news today - cousin Arnold and his wife Sandy were blessed with a bubbly baby girl named Grace Christina Read. Both mum and baby are well and of course the grandparents are estatic.
The next day Sunday 30th April, we brought our little Ethan to his usual Tumbletots class now located at their new place in Prima Tanjung (Fettes Park). As usual he enjoyed himself and being one of the oldest in his class, he was busy helping the instructors to keep the toys - which impressed them greatly. Anyway, next week, we will be taking him to the next class up - for those 2-3 years old. Gosh, time flies.
We had dinner this eve of public holiday at Peppino's, the Italian restaurant at Golden Sands Hotel. Food was as usual good, they has a guest chef for the week and we were also using Jinny's Shang discount card for the last time as it expired that day!
The next day - 1st May was Yan's birthday but we didn't meet up; the party shoes being kept aside till the weekend of the 12th May (Wesak Day). That evening we were all invited to Suganthi & Suresh's place to celebrate Sureka's birthday. It was pretty enjoyable there and the lamb curry was amazing.
It was back to work on Tuesday, Mum drove herself to the hospital for her blood test - a regular event just before her session of chemotherapy. Wednesday, she went in to the ward for her sixth session. She was discharge on Friday night and the very next morning was thrust into busy preparations for Ethan's birthday function.
We had decided to celebrate Ethan's birthday on Saturday 6th May (his actual birthday is the 8th of May) and originally was to have booked Tanjung Country Club. On Thursday, they decided to insist on immediate payment in full and also refused to allow us to reduce our numbers eventho some of our guests had declined. So Jo & I chose not to go ahead with the party there and with just 2 days left, there were scarce options left. We finally decided that we could host it ourselves at home but it would depend on whether mum could cope with all the activity and work right after her chemo treatment.
I spoke to mum and she agreed to cook a dish and make all the preparations, so it was full steam ahead for our plans. Around 20+ people turned up on Saturday 6th May at 4 p.m. I will let the party photos speak for themselves.
The birthday boy oblivious of the festivities...
People standing around and well, eating!!
Mum getting things organised and re-plenishing her popular Spaghetti with Dry Laksa Sauce dish!Sunday again and we sufficiently recovered from the busy day before to bring Ethan to his new class at Tumbletots. Luckily for us, this new class starts a little later at 11 a.m. We actually dreaded this new class as we were told it was more regimented and disciplined where the kids are lead thru the obstacles in turn - unlike the old class where the tots were given free reign to run everywhere. However, Ethan surprised us as he was reasonably good in following instructions and completed all the obstacles without much bother!
That night we had a dinner - the Sg. Ara Catholic Community Centre Charity dinner. KH and Jinny hosted us and we all had a pretty good time. Met quite a few people we knew, including - Marion Caunter (now TV host on 8TV), Alma (Eric Yam's Filipino wife who sings with a local group), Johnny (Jo's wedding dress designer who put on a fashion show that night) and many more. The main attraction of the night was a performance by Jaclyn Victor - our very own Malaysian Idol. She was pretty damn good - and I can see why she won. Many had a great time as the wine flowed freely and even Father Francis Anthony and Father Henry Rajoo both had a real ball!
Monday 8th May - it was Ethan's actual birthday and we opened his presents for him in the morning. He was quite taken by the many new things before him and set out to explore each one in turn.
This day proved to be another important day in my family's annals. Priscilla sent all an email announcing that she's 3-months pregnant! Congrats to her & Meng!
The rest of the week was routine, with work dominating the days as we again headed towards a long weekend. We took the opportunity of Wesak on Friday to go see "Mission: Impossible III" at GSC Gurney Plaza on Thursday night. We caught the midnight show after meeting the gang for coffee at Dome. The show was all action which shielded the weak storyline well. Can't seem to bring myself to like the main character knowing now that he's played by that freaky scientologist.
Anyway, today is Wesak day. We spent the whole day at home with Ethan. Took him for our usual walk this evening and I must say, the day had been relaxing and more enjoyable than I thought likely. I'm looking forward to the events of tomorrow - an early Mother's day lunch as Jo's mum has to be away on Sunday; and of course Jinny & Yan's birthday celebrations. Till then, see ya!
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