God is risen, Hallelujah!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish our family and friends a very happy and blessed Easter.

Birthday on Good Friday

When your birthday falls on Good Friday, you wouldn't want to celebrate.  That's what happened to me this year.  As much as I want to keep it a low profile, my friends and family seemed not allowing me to.  So it's another week of food, food, and food.  There are a lot of work to do after this week to cut down the numbers on the weighing scale.

DC at its best

I was in DC last week for cherry blossoms/Sakura viewing.  The weather wasn't perfect for pictures but timing is really important for blossoms viewing, as the flowers won't last very long, usually 10-12 days after peak bloom.  Washington D.C.(approx. 200 miles south of New York), is the national capital of United States.  The capital hosts the National Cherry Blossom Festival every spring, which draws millions of tourists and enthusiastic photographers to the city during late March to early April.  It was an awesome sight of thousands of cherry trees in blooms, the trees were originally gifted by Japan for friendship 99 years ago (1912).  And some 900 from the 3,000 trees given still rooted in DC.

Yoshino cherry trees is most commonly seen in DC, it produces single white blossoms that create an effect of white clouds around the Tidal Basin.  No wonder why spring is always the best time to visit this place.

March updates

Zoe received yet another Best Student Award this year and,

we spent some time in Jersey celebrating our godson's birthday. Kids are growing up pretty quickly.

We will miss YOU

A milestone

I have to befriend with glasses, finally. Sign of aging. This is my first pair of reading glass, can't imagine myself wearing it.

Longing for a traditional CNY

When you are away from home, you miss everything about home. Chinese New Year is one of these time. Besides New Year's eve reunion dinner and giving red envelopes, we have started another CNY tradition after coming to NY, that's 撈生 'Lao-Sheng'. To my surprise, this tradition is only practiced in Malaysia and Singapore, and our friends from Hong Kong and China have never heard about it.

To be honest, we too have not tried 七彩魚生 back home, which is a plate full of shredded raw vegetables, dried fruits, sliced salmon, ginger, mixed with some sweet and sour sauce and grounded peanuts. In KK many restaurants and hotels do serve this signature Chinese New Year specialty, but I used to think that's only for the rich and famous who do that for the prosperity and the luck of their business. But it's a whole new experience to us here, it's like an appetizer, a staple if you dine in a Malaysian restaurant during CNY. When the ingredients are ready, everyone on the table will together toss them high and make some well wishes for the new year. It's really fun and we have come to love this 'new' tradition.