Ohana

Like fine wine, one mellows with age. 

The Choo's celebrated Mrs Choo's birthday at Ben's at Bangsar Village. We seldom dine in at a Western restaurant when it comes to family dinner but we were so impressed with the food at Ben's KLCC so we decided to give the branch at Bangsar ago. That, and we had to collect Mrs Choo's birthday cake at Humble Beginnings.

My peppermint milkshake (tis the season to be jiggly I say) and Mr Choo's root beer float

Small Choo's four cheese macaroni

Roasted chicken served with Caesar salad on the side. Shared by the other three.

The roasted chicken was slightly under cook, if you noticed the pinkish area of the meat. But the gravy that accompanied it was good. However, as The Choo's frequents Caesar Salad, we found it a tad bit disappointing. The dressing could've been more flavourful. The croutons were, basically huge chunks of tough bread and what should be grated Parmesan cheese was deep fried blocks of cheese.

And owh buddha don't even get me started about this salad. I suppose if you would enjoy this salad if you were a health junky. Actually, no, not even then. This marinated button mushroom and soy salad is... Ungodly. The vinaigrette was too overpowering and overall, not a dish that we enjoyed.

Went to Humble Beginnings after dinner to collect the cake WHERE SMALL CHOO AND I MET REUBEN KANG zomgosh *squeals* , went to Ikea to shop for furniture and went back home after that. Upon driving up the street where we live, we notice that two row of houses did not have any power at all, including ours. We also found pieces of tree branches strewed all across the road. 

We later found out that there was a massive orchestra or thunder and lightning earlier in the evening and it stuck one of the tree's outside of our house and it exploded a bit, leaving not more than half of the tree trunk left standing there. But hey, in the name of Mother Choo, the celebration must go on. Not having any electricity didn't stop us from eating cutting the cake lol. 

The power was out for a good 5hrs and it only came on at about 11pm. Moving past that grim night... Happy Birthday again mummy-! You've turned 53 but yet you don't look like a day past erm, 48? Lol at this age it can be counted as a blessing to look 3yrs younger than your actual age. Love that woman.

Mr Choo and I headed back to Teluk Intan for a day trip to visit the grandparents since I won't be going back this Chinese New Year. But the main reason was to help them set up the new TV-! Being the wonderful son that Mr Choo is, he bought Senior Choo a new TV and TV stand to replace the old rickety one that they had for years.  

So, Mr Choo and I sat in the living room early in the morning to help them fix up the TV stand FROM SCRATCH. It's a good thing too as a matter of fact because Mr Choo taught me a thing or two about fixing furniture. I'm proud to say that I helped assembled half of the TV stand *gleems* now now lads, take a number ahahhaa. See, potential wife material. I can help set up wardrobes and drawers and such while my husband stays in the kitchen and make me a sandwich. 

The setting up of the TV however, was all left to Mr Choo. Electrical and wiring isn't exactly my forte. And THAT is the end product-! My dad really never fails to surprise me with his technical and hands on ability to do such things, from carpentry, to gardening and to plumbing even. How lucky is my mum to have been able to snag such a handyman for a husband :3

The Choo's found themselves among the rest of the Choo family on a Saturday night having a pre Chinese New Year gathering at my aunt's new condo at Sri Perling. A woman who has an MBA, who bought the unit by herself and living on her own. That's lady balls right there. It was a pot luck event, thus, we ended up with a big fat spread of hearty and delicious meals prepared by every family. Again, tis the season to be jiggly.

Everyone also had a skype session with my Grand Aunt&Uncle all the way from the States. They have been there forever, more like forced to settle down there for the past decade or more because my Grand Uncle misplaced his immigration card which caused his Malaysian passport to be impounded. He was teary eyed during the whole skype session.

That was actually the first time Small Choo, my younger cousin and I were seeing him. I've never had a conversation with him or his son before, not even sure they know about my existence prior to this skype session. Having relatives and not knowing they exist or never having seeing them before is the worst feeling. And I know it's even worse for my Grand Uncle because Mrs Choo told me he wants nothing more than to come back to Malaysia to see his family, and to leave the States once and for all.

I'm sorry to say that I've been ditching hanging out with my friends this whole week, but I think I needed to spend more time with my family instead. I rarely get to sit down and have a proper talk with them on a daily basis and I felt that I have been neglecting them so much to the point that I find myself hardly able to catch up with them in family conversations regarding the latest happening and gossips and such.

This past week have been such a blessing because come next year, I know I'll be doing the same thing all over again because of my internship and involvement with the Student Development Hub in Uni. It has been a while since I got to hang out with them like this. I've even started going to the gym with Small Choo and I'm glad to say we've gotten pretty close because of that as well. The most important thing that I've learned during the holidays is that we really do have time for everything, we just need to know how to prioritize them well so we get some time off for ourselves too. With that being said, I'd like to end this post with "mon famille, mon ife". My family, my life :')