My 54th Visitor – Serene Chia!

April 6, 2008 2 Comments

We welcome our 54th Visitor this morning at 7am! Serene Chai is finally here with us!
More to come – next, Mdm Shin is popping by this coming Friday 11th April!

2006
May: Felicia, John, Ow Yong, Monica & Julian
June: Charlie, Jamie
July: Scott, Desmond, Yogi
August: Meiling, Bettina
Nov: Tracy, Ken, Jinwei, Hong Ai
Dec: Sam, Lusia (and 5 other family members)

2007
Jan: Felicia & Elkan
Feb: Serene (Jimmy’s wife)
Mar: Joanne
April: Mum, Dad, Leon, Auntie Amy and Uncle Benny
May: Kelvin, Diane
June: Juliana, Felicia & Elkan
July: Scott, Desmond, Yogi
August: Shawn
Sept: Tracy
Oct: Kalinda, Felicia & Elkan, Cousin Alvin
Nov: Hovman
Coming in Dec: Auntie Amy, Cousin Chester, Joanne’s cousin

2008:
Feb: Adrian (my long-distant cousin)
Mar: Leon
Apr: Serene Chia, Shin

Filed under Life in Shanghai

Funny Meanings

April 4, 2008 Leave a comment

Filed under Life in Shanghai

Elkan is Back!

April 4, 2008 4 Comments

Tracy made a surprise “Welcome Poster” for Elkan – pasted at our 18th floor lift landing. Felicia and Elkan saw the poster first…(when I was still in the lift carrying the luggages). She rushed back into the lift and gave me that estascy look!Below: Just 5-hour before – A happy send-off by Joanne and mum-in-law.

Filed under Family, Life in Singapore

Refreshing Taipei

April 4, 2008 2 Comments

Last weekend, I gave Felicia a surprise trip to Taipei. I hid her passport in my bag and wanted her to send me off to the airport. Being my partner for 15 years, she managed to sniff out my trick even before we left the house. Still, she acted dumb and played along. Tsk, tsk, this is what you get after 15 years of togetherness. She becomes the “worm in your stomach” (a chinese slang). Yucky!

I love Taipei (I guess I said that to many places I visited). Okay, I be more specific this time. I love Taiwan girls. They are known for their sweet tune and pitch (something most female readers disagree in disgust). Somehow, these personalities project a very sweet image of them. The hotel and retail girls are just so sweet that you want to give them a good hug. Both Feli and I refer them as “Chups-alike”.

It was a work-&-leisure trip. So, we didn’t really go out too much for sight-seeing. Taipei is another good shopping city. It is less crowded than Hong Kong and offers more varieties than Shanghai. Things aren’t cheap like Bangkok but you can find a lot of trendy goods (targeted for the youngsters). I saw one of the biggest magazine collections in their 24/7 bookstore – it is huge! You find tons of magazines covering all types of content (toys, lifestyle collectibles, premium gifts, handphones, hang-bags, fashion accessories etc).

Just like my London trip, I have a list of “must-hit” places – Taipei 101, ShiLin Night Market, Memorial Hall of Dr Sun, Forbidden City Museum and Ximan Ding. And I also have my list of “must-eat” – Taiwanese sausage, Hand-roll Prata, Bubble-Tea, Ice Jelly and Oyster Mee Sua. And the most important memento from Taiwan is a close encounter with their infamous “Betel Nut Beauties” (aka Ping Nang Xi Shi). That is a MUST-MUST for me. I have heard so much about them – I must see and touch it for myself. I mean the Betel Nuts..not the Beauties.

Well, I did covered most of those on my lists. Except, the hot and spicy Betel Nut Girls do not want to be photographed. We were rejected by a couple of them until we found one sweet, innocent, decent Betel Nut Girl. She must be the most conservative one along the street. (Anyway, you don’t see a lot of those RA type in Taipei…they are all further away from the capital city.)

We came to Taipei at the right time. President Ma just won the election. And coincidently, Feli and I “rubbed shoulder” with ex-President Lee Teng Hui. We walked pass each other at Sharaton Hotel. Strange thing is the police cleared us to walk near Lee. We have a close proximity with him. He was there to attend a wedding dinner (could be his relative).

So, this is Taipei… and I am back to Shanghai with my “prankster” and ever-so smart-yet-act-dumb wife.

Filed under Family, Life in Shanghai, Travel

Historical Nanjing

March 21, 2008 Leave a comment

I went to Nanjing last weekend. It was an unplanned, last-minute trip. We had a free ride from a friend who works in Nanjing – so we just hopped on for a free vacation.

It was a 3.5-hour drive from Shanghai. Nanjing is a very scenic place. And in my personal opinion, I thought it is more beautiful and “real” than Hangzhou. Both Hangzhou and Nanjing share many similarities – big lake, beautiful hillside landscape, good dining and shopping street etc. However, Nanjing stood out with its rich historic past (Not to mention the infamous “Rape of Nanjing” incident). The city houses the world’s “longest city wall” – not to be confused by the Great Wall. Viewing the wall by the lake side, it is such beautiful sight.

Nanjing is also the resting place of Dr Sun (at ZhongShan Ling). And you can find natural hot springs in Nanjing too. Too bad, our trip was so short and we didn’t really explore much – except the Wall and shopping streets. It is certainly worth the trip to come back.

Filed under Life in Shanghai, Travel

Beautiful Cebu

March 12, 2008 Leave a comment

This year, my client threw their annual conference on a very beautiful island called Mactan Island, Cebu. I flew out from the bitter cold Shanghai and landed on a familiar tropical island. I had to stopover Hong Kong for 1 night. The entire journey took me about 11 hours (minus the sleeping hours).Cebu (not confusing it with another Sibu Island) is a beautiful place. I stayed at Shangri-la Resort (very much like our Rasa Sentosa). The whole group of us were there for work…but we also took time to chill out on the beach. Not much sun, it rained almost everyday. The resort was crowded with beach-goers (you see lots of Japs, Koreans and Asians).

My client was such a great host. They threw such a grand beach party and we partied till 2am. It was great for both agency and client. The mental wall of “client-agency” isn’t there at all. Like old friends, we drank, dined and made merry! There were fireworks, free flow of drinks and lots of exotic dancers. It is hard to describe the atmosphere – you just got to be there!Surely, it is a business excursion for me – but we came back with job well accomplished. We earned our ranks and most importantly, friendship and trust with a group of very dynamic people.

Filed under Life in Shanghai, Travel

My new MBA – MacBook Air

February 23, 2008 Leave a comment

Finally, after more than 6 weeks of waiting, I was amongst the first 10 lucky owners of the new "MBA" (MacBook Air) in Asia Pacific! Exclusively first launched (last week) in Hong Kong and Singapore, I got my MBA on the 1st day it arrived at the shop! Beautifully sexy, basic and intelligent. (And I would say it is the next best MAC offering after iPhone! Ever since iMac brought Apple from its ashes 10 years ago, Steve has done everything possibly right!)

It isn’t a performance laptop like MBPro but this is a big show-off for any presentation. It doesn’t come with a super-drive or ethernet port. No firewire slot and the battery is built-in (like iPhone). Nevertheless, this is what I call a "PC-killer", a "MAC-convertor". Compare with Sony’s TZ 11-inch compact laptop, the MBA is a far impressive one. It is affordable (at S$2,988 – S$11 cheaper than Sony) and visually stunning. It has that "I want to own and touch it factor". Weighing 1.3kg, incredibly 1.9cm thick, seriously, it is not really a blue-sky creation – why didn’t the PC makers (Jap brands) produce something so simple and nice? It is a smooth-seller. I am sure there are a lot of conversion to Mac platform right now.

Man, dun I love gadgets! Felicia is right when I got my iPhone. She predicted that I will be converting to Mac soon. My wife is absolutely right – "Once you go Mac, you never turn back."

Filed under Jo's Thoughts

The Last Day of CNY

February 23, 2008 Leave a comment

Being away for 23 days, I managed to return home to enjoy the last day of CNY in Shanghai. There were fireworks everywhere. And for that spilt moment, I thought I was back in my army days (jungle training). There were bangs, flares, sparks and explosions at every corner. For the whole night, you could hear explosions right beside your ears. Fire-crackers on the streets stopped traffic. The whole night sky is lit with beautiful fireworks.

I had my last CNY dinner (Guangzhou food) with Johnny and his friends. Later that night, we went to Johnny’s place and we ignited 3 barrels of fireworks – right in the middle of his estate compound. It was huge and loud! This is something you cannot do in Shanghai city (except during CNY). Simultaneously, there were other fireworks igniting in the background – man, a mass orgy of sparks and bangs! Sounds like I am in the middle of live-firing.

Filed under Life in Shanghai

My Big CNY Feast 2008

February 10, 2008 1 Comment


(Photo Taken: Wahbiang CNY Reunion Dinner on 10 Feb / CNY Gathering at Auntie Amy House on 8th Feb)

For the past 5 years, I haven’t been spending enough effort to meet up with my relatives, especially my favourite cousins and elders. Ever since Granny’s death, the whole clan lost their togetherness as one big family. When I was young, CNY is the most anticipated festival for me. It was a time when all the big 7 families gathered and the bonds were very strong. When Granny is gone, no elders manage to lead and continue our family’s tradition and legacy. Over the past 9 years, we celebrated our own CNY in our own micro family. We only visit one another and it is so difficult to get the big family back together again.

This CNY, I decided to pay all of them a visit. One house after another, the feeling was really good. I guess everyone miss the good old days but no one ever think of rounding up the families together. When I visited Granny at Bright Hill, I told her my little wish – that is to rally the families together in 2009 CNY. Let’s bring back the old glory of one big family. Or should we want to wait for another funeral / wedding to gather?


(Photo Taken: CNY Gathering at Xuejun’s house on 12th Feb / CNY Gathering at Gugu’s house on 12th Feb)

It is on the dinning table where we chat our lives and share our joy. When I dine at Gugu’s house, I tried so hard to hold back my tears on the dining table. There was one particular dish that reminded me of Granny. It was that special taste. Each bite brought back memories of my childhood with Granny. Sigh…I am getting sentimental again. (I guessed I will look really stupid if I cried that day – my dad and mum would think I choked on some bones or what!) I excused myself in the midst of dinner, went to the living room, clear my eyes and throat and came back with the camera.

I wish I can expressed more that day. I want to tell them how much I miss Granny’s cooking and those days back in Koon Seng Road. It was simple family-cooked food but the feelings are so different. No other food can compare with this. It is a family recipe, passed by word-of-mouth from mothers to daughters. And soon, all these will be lost and our new generation will have nothing to pass to their next.

The best thing in life may not be the most expensive one. Like the animation “Ratatullie”, it is the reminiscing of one’s fondest memory that completes the perfect taste of that signature dish. It is not made up of the best and most expensive ingredients but it consists the “taste of pure love” which touches our hearts.


(Photo Taken: Lunch Gathering with Qianqian and Alvin on 16th Feb. / Chalet at Downtown East on 17th Feb.)

Filed under Family, Life in Singapore, Wahbiang

Dad’s 60th Birthday Ride

February 10, 2008 1 Comment

On Dad’s 60th Lunar Birthday, I planned an unusual dinner night for our family. They were of course, thrilled. This is our first time dining on the “Cheng Ho Vessel”. Everyone is excited. The vessel departs at Marina South Pier at 630pm and it is a 2.5 hour ride around Singapore southern islands. It cost only S$55/head and the buffet dinner is only so-so. Like the Junk I sat in Hong Kong, this ride promised an unforgettable experience (with fireworks and open-air deck). Before boarding, my mum, aunt and dad were very excited and happy. They were so eager to get onboard.

The story wasn’t the same after the vessel departed the pier. Auntie Amy was giddy, my mum was vomitting, our children were screaming and my poor old dad didn’t really get a nice 60th Birthday. Look, half of his guests were either sea-sick or staying very still. Even my brother-in-law didn’t finish his cup of beer. At the end of the 2.5 hour ride, everyone is looking forward to shore. It is amusing to see how the guests “suffered” the ride.

I am sure they remember this day. And poor dad, he didn’t even have the chance to blow his cake. 😛

Filed under Family, Life in Singapore

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