Hello! MAD (Matt & Dav) is back!

We have indeed taken a very long hiatus from blogging. Everytime I yearn to blog, there's somehow an intertia in me as there's so much to blog about but I somehow don't know where to start. Perhaps this post would stimulate me to revive this blog and post more frequent updates.

For the past few months, we have had a lot of things that were pretty much eventful in our lives. Some were just couple-activities that we occupied ourselves with; some were casual meet-ups with friends; but i think there were a few signficant ones that are probably worth mentioning a bit more.

Firstly, it would be my Dad's 60th Birthday. It was about a month back now and it took us approximately a month to plan. I wanted this birthday celebration to be really special - not because he's 60, but also, I wanted to do something to bond the family back together. Ever since I got together with Matt, and my brother together with Jen, somehow, we've lost much time spent together. Sure, we always try to make time for dinners and lunches together as a big family, but our conversations seemed to be very polite and cordial. Perhaps, my family has always been like that - conservative, somewhat traditional, and not so personal. It feels awkward to talk to my brother about personal things. Hence, I came up with the idea of a weekend family getaway at Changi Beach Club. It wasn't expensive, and surprisingly, we were also given a complimentary night stay. Dear came up with an awesome idea of a family jersey. We sourced around for the cheapest shop, and had a good deal for a plain adidas jersey with each of our names printed on it for only $20 per person. With my persistent encouragement, our family of 4 wore our jerseys to CBC. It has been almost 10+ years since we stayed there, and the rooms have pretty much changed quite a bit. We filled our weekend stay with plenty of activities for our family to be involved in - swimming, pool, bowling, badminton, table tennis, mahjong, morning boardwalk. I could tell that all of us enjoyed ourselves thoroughly - especially my Dad since I've never seen him smiled so widely before. God was gracious, as He granted us safety and a wonderful weather during our stay. But I guess the most effort spent in his birthday present was a 15 min video made by me and dear, filled with pictures of his entire life thus far. It was so troublesome digging out his oldest brownish-black & white photos, and having to take out a photo each from every single family holiday we have had over the years. Thanks to my cousins & aunties, I also managed to get short video clips from them of their personal birthday speeches to my Dad. It's really touching to see all the effort spent by his loved ones in making his birthday a really special one. Especially the video clip from his sister's family all the way from Canada. There was just so so much love. We watched the video on his actual birthday after a very expensive Japanese Teppanyaki meal at Pac Pacific Hotel, and he was very very moved. All in all, I think he had a very memorable birthday and we thank God for blessing us with such a wonderful earthly father.

Secondly, it would be our 4th year anniversary. Time flies, eh? I could still clearly recall how we met and first got together with you, dear. We talked and reminiscise all that we've been through together over the years, and had a good laugh over the silly things we've done and said to each other. God has blessed us both and these 4 years have been more than beautiful. May God continue to bless us with never-ending years of love, till death do us part and we shall reunite in heaven.

Third would be my 23rd birthday. It was the first birthday as a working adult, and it did feel somewhat different. As dear and I are actively saving up money for our future, we've agreed on not spending money for our birthday presents. Hence, he made me a very sweet birthday video, capturing memories of the times we've had, and he even video-ed his workplace as I've been wanting to see how his work desk looks like haha! Thank you for the very amazing video...and the computer quizes I had to play and guess before I could view the video. That was very creative dear. Thank you also to my beloved jess and guitar dearies for the presents and time forked out to celebrate with me. Also, not forgetting my family for the japanese dinner. I'm truly very thankful!

Fourthly, both dear and I have reached another milestone - dear has finally gotten the green light to meet my grandma after 4 years. Strange, you might think. Well, my grandma is very traditional, so much so that she always tells my mom that I should only get a bf when I start working. It has been 6 months since I've started working, and it seems to be a pretty reasonable time to finally introduce my other half to her. That first-meeting was cute and interesting. Both dear and i have been waiting for this moment for quite a long time..and it caught us by surprise when the time has finally arrived. In short, i think my grandma likes him and there's no need to play hide-and-seek anymore. Hooray!

The fifth one is perhaps the most significant milestone ever - but that, we will keep it in suspense for the time being. For those who are thinking about wedding bells - No lah! Not so soon! When the time is right, it shall be revealed.

Next in-line would be our graduation (which I think i blogged before but there wasn't any picture posted as far as I remember) and all the wonderful gatherings we've had over the past few months - birthdays meet up with jess (the grill we had still makes me salivate whenever I think about it), k-box with guitar dearies, catching up with gy, erlin, crystal, birthday celebration by my colleagues in the office and the recent xmas gathering with the guitarians at my place. That probably sums up my social life in short during this period haha.



The other not-so-significant events would be the very talented pet bird "Sunday" I had for a month and my cooking / baking attempts! I didn't extensively baked / cooked but since it's my hobby, whenever I have the zest / inspiration / time / money, I will try to whip something out. Because I like to do it from scratch, sometimes it just doesn't work out the way I wanted it to be. So, they are not perfect but as the saying goes, practise makes perfect!

Sunday - the very beautiful and talented (as you can see from her different moves) love bird. She was found and "saved" on 16 Oct 2010 and was released back to the wild exactly a month later.

Mango Pudding & Konyaku Jelly

Cranberry & Oatmeal cookies

Self-marinated pork chop + mashed potato + vegetable salad in apple cider vinegar dressing

the "guinea pig" boy (lucky or unlucky) who always gets the "privilege" to taste the food i cooked first-hand haha

the omu rice which was an uber-fail. It became fried rice wrapped in an omelette! haha. But well, i think it was due to the pan-size and me trying to stuff too much rice in it.

vegetable soup which tasted just right for me. :) i absolutely love the taste but i think it turned out a little too oily cos of the chicken bone

Cottage pie for the guitar dearies on our xmas celebration night. I think the picture looks nicer than it tastes haha. (Photo credits: Yuting)

Blessed christmas and new year everyone! Without Christ, what would our world be like? Perhaps it will be a world entirely void of love. Let us, then, thank God for His love for without Him, there would be no us.

p.s./ Hope my OTHER-HALF will be more encouraged to blog now since I've made the first move to revive it!