Chinese New Year In Dubai

This year, because Ace's school holiday does not coincide with CNY, we got permission from our parents to go back to Singapore later. And so, we had to celebrate CNY in Dubai instead... it was sort of a different experience since unlike the usual hustle bustle, we could take our own sweet time.. on top of that, I think we had reunion dinners at least 3 times with our friends:) wahahaha...

First round was with our usual gang at my fav HK restaurant:) We had a great meal... but forgot to take group photo!

Second round was at E's place and Ace insisted that he wanted to wear his new shoes, new pants and bring his new camera to help take photos.. Mr haolian lah:) wahahaha

Then on the actual day of the New Years eve we decided to have dinner with our friend and chose to eat SINGAPOREAN/ASIAN FOOD:) wahahaha

I was all dressed up :)

Thai toufu salad..

Thai fried rice..

Green Curry!

Stir fried veggies with toufu.

Hor fun!!!:)

And even laksa!:)

Ace made a paper shrimp out of the chopstick cover and is pretending that he is eating shrimp.. wahaha:)

Max happy as long as there is beer:)

Finished off with fantastic dessert:)

And Ice Kachang with ice cream:)

Ace was fascinated with the traditional looking ice machine..

Mr professional take out his camera to take some pictures:)

Before posing for some for me:) wahahaha

We were very lucky.. that one of my friends invited us over for a pot luck party on the 1st day of CNY and that CNY fell on a weeked:)


Dress up nice nice in my new clothes go go visiting:) hehehe..

Foggy day.. Khalifa was mostly hidden hin the clouds.. but we very blur.. ok.. is not we.. is I very blur, in the car halfway there then realise tat I forget to bring kum! I specially bought lor! hahahaha

Max din know anyone there.. but was happy as long as got beer:) wahahaa.. Actually I din know too many pple there as well.. wahahahaah :)

Even got lou hei flown in from sgp! woohoo!

The potluck got lots of food lor:) wahahaha.. and the host made the best braised mushrooms ever! We even got to dabao home! I made salty duck rice but becos so much food, there was so much left over! I brought home and we ate for another two days then finish lor.. really is nian nian you yu! wahahahahaa

The very considerate host also prepared fishless vegeterian yu sheng:) cool!

Oops.. Max's tam jiak face caught on camera!:) wahahaha...

We sat with my cooking teacher J and M and her daughter... my friend's daughter was very intelligent young girl.. she is 18 and very smart..she is going to uni soon and still don exactly know where she is going in her life..  as I was chatting with her, she remarked, "It must be great to be your age.. you are at the age where you know where you are going and what you want to do.. and I am still searching..."

I told her that she will find what she wants in due course. But her words had a deep impact on me. While it is true tat at this age (woman's age is secret.. dun ask!) , I understand myself much much more than when I was 18. I know what i like, what i dont like... what i can do well, what i need to work harder or focus harder to do well..But do I really know where I am going.. Not really. I cant even answer a simple question like "How long are you going to be in Dubai?"

But chatting more with her about how she thought her family will only be here for two years and so she went back to Singapore to do her studies because after one term here, she found the secondary school here not engaging enough for her and she felt like she did not learn much as she was going through what she had already learnt... "Had I know my dad is going to be here for 6 years, I wouldnt have left.." She told me.

So I guess... the I-dunno-when-i-will-go-back dilemma is not exclusive to me:) haha. almost everyone living in dubai has this sort of dilemma :)

Anyway, Ace had his own kids table of friends too

Someone even brought those kong ming lantern to light up:)

Our lantern lighting process is another very interesting process for us..

I told Ace he can write his wish on the lantern.. and so he put down that he wants to get 100 million dollars! hahahha :)

Sadly, when we tried to let the lantern go, it keep not flying into the sky.. I suspect because the lantern got a hole somewhere...

Then Ace found another one with a broken piece of fuel BUT the fuel cannot be attached.. so no go..

Then we got the last last last lantern to try... and again, it couldnt fly and I found out that there is a hole in it...

"Just use a tape to tape it up... "Said our friend's 8 year old son.. "That is what I did to mine.." And so we taped it up.. and finally...

Our lantern carrying our wishes of happiness and good health to all our family and friends rose into the sky...

I was musing over the process and telling Max this is really similar to our current process. We keep getting a hope that we might be going back to Singapore.. and just as the thing seem like it is about to happen, it did not take off... Game changed and we are given another chance to go back to Singapore..and again, it did not take off... I couldnt help but wonder why others have it easy and have their lanterns lit up and sent up into the skies the first time....

"Well, most important is that our lantern went up in the end because a "gui ren" appeared mah.." said Max when I told him about my musings.. hahaha :)

Well, hopefully this gui ren appear soon in our life and help us "fix tat hole in that lantern:) "

All in all, it was a wonderful night.. Many thanks to Jo and Michael for playing host to the wonderful party. Little Ace got into a little toilet accident and even had to dabao a pair of pants and underwear home:) hahaha... Paiseh man..

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