Last Friday we hopped on a bus and brought the family back to Kuala Lumpur. Reached there at exactly noon time. In the crowded place and scorching heat, we had to settle for lunch at KFC. It was rare fast food for us and the kids complained the food was too salty. I look at Mag with hint of being astonished by her food training program at home. She smiled. Dad picked us up after that and our first dinner at home was simple.

On New Year's Eve we ate out for what is to be a 9 course meal for our family reunion meal. There were all of us except my second brother who was in Brisbane. Yu Sheng didn't taste as good this year. Maybe i've moved on with my taste in food. I found the fish and the light desert rather refreshing.

On New Year's Day, mother's side of the family visited because she's the eldest of them all. There were kids, kids and more kids. It was a vibrant lot. That night I sneaked out for teh tarik with 4 old class mates where we talked about old school mates, their vices (and virtues). We exchange about Malaysian politics, doing business and about making our first million. It was lots of rambling about life but at the end of the day we all agree that money is overated and is not the most important thing.

On the second day, my dad's side of family visited. They were the older lot.. the members somehow not as fertile as mum's side so average age = much higher. It was a good lunch time with them. In the evening, drove south and visited Putrajaya, Malaysia's new administrative centre in the southern part of Selangor. It was an hour's drive and boy, that place's huge (And costs lots of money too). I was impressed that they did all that at one go. It was a result of a man's vision and that made it clear that sometimes a vision is all it takes (with of course after that a never give up attitude). See these pictures.

Day 3, woke up at 3:45am, did my stuff and then watched TV from 4:30 to 730 for 3 hours straight. I can be a TV junkie. Watched a BBC english comedy, Seinfeid, Oprah Winfrey, Initial D a chinese movie, a business executive award presentation, CNBC news and some music videos. I think the problem is not 'Cable TV' but its the remote control. Without it I won't last 30 minutes. I was like catching up on TV for what I missed the whole of last year. Anyway I learned a lot that day. For me the TV is not to amuse but to give ideas and to open up minds a little bit more than if I engage in mere daily routines. For breakfast, we went for our newly discovered metre-long or high 'Roti Tisu'. It was lunch too because the roti tisu is really that huge. In the afternoon we were all prepared to return to Singapore. On our way to the bus station, we experienced the 'great KL traffic stand still'. Despite getting off the car and lugging our stuff to the station by foot, we missed our 2:30pm bus. Had to wait for the next bus at 3:30 and with 3 kids in the over-crowded Puduraya Station, it wasn't Club Med. It was nerve wrecking actually because we can only board if there's vacancy in the next fully booked bus. In other words someone has to miss their bus. Anyway Mei Si prayed and so exactly 5 person missed the bus, we were humbly given their seats. We were glad though we reach Singapore at 11pm. It was good that I didn't drive also because of the occasion jam along the way. I rested enough.

This morning, came back to work and before that could happen, our blue Lancer had a punctured tire. Spent an hour figuring out how to change tires. Never done it before but the experience was worth the effort. It confirmed that life's going to be problematic. However since God has overcame them, we can only be better off going through it. Through it all we are more experienced and better enriched people.

God has been good and for a Chinese New Year that is full of everything, I'm happy to have it as an annual tradition. So how was yours?