Tea and Family in Malaysia

We're back from two weeks in Malaysia and Singapore where we spent heaps of time with family. So much that we didn't manage to fit in our usual catch ups with friends this time around, though I guess we did just see most of them in February during our last visit. After all, our main purpose for this trip was to be there for Francois and Sam's tea ceremony, which also served as the first mostly full Chua gathering I can remember in over 10 years. It was good to see the UK contingent though a few absent cousins kept it from being a truly complete meet up.

I didn't end up taking that many photos of the event itself but what I did manage to snap can be seen here. Eleanor was dressed in the same Chinese outfit we had her in for CNY earlier in the year though I think she's fitting into it a lot better. Very cute and it's nice that we got another wear out of it.

Coming over from Brisbane with Nelly was a little more tiring than our last flight as now that she's grown to big we didn't have a basinet for respite. I usually get at least a few hours of sleep on the flight but I don't think either of us managed much rest this time. At least we had a bulk head row and two lovely old Italian grand mothers next two us that offered to look after the little girl for a while. The trip back to Brisbane was far worse with no sleep until we arrived home at 3AM so here's hoping that our next international flight with Eleanor in her own seat will be a little easier. I'm sure we still have it easy as far as crying babies on airplanes go.

Eleanor has always been a good eater and chowed down on heaps of local faire on her first visit to Malaysia. This trip she took it to a new level as she inhaled dish after dish, often unassisted. With so many aunties around she had lots of people putting food in her mouth as well and they were only encouraged when Nelly happily consumed a stream of tiny morsels. All of her Lau Ma (elder aunties) were particularly impressed with her ability to tolerate spicy food for someone her age. My favourite photo was one we snapped of her shovelling in a mouthful of fish head noodles. That girl sure loves noodles.

Yvonne acquired a dog since the last time we were back in Kajang in February. A cute little tea cup poodle named Elmo who resides in her room upstairs most of the day. Nelly seems to be developing an affinity for dogs and she particularly enjoyed saying hello to Elmo every day. It was particularly adorable at breakfast each morning, watching her struggle at the top of the stairs about whether to stay and play with Elmo some more or to descend slowly down the steps yelling "Nummy nummy nummy" (which is her word for food) at the top of her lungs. Most of the time food won out but I think it was a tough decision.

The second leg of our trip involved a drive down to Johor to stay at my cousin Ivan's house for the Moon Festival. I haven't had a mooncake in Malaysia for some time and this was Nelly's first chance to play with a lantern, not that she really seemed all that fussed about it. Not even the big bear lantern than played music and blinked lights when you turned it on, shame. We deflated the bear and brought it back to Australia on the off chance she might like it as much as we did one day.

Ivan's house had a fleet of toy cars that Eleanor became enamoured with. "Car" seems to be a new favourite word now as well and she loved driving the house around with a little assistance. I blame the Giggle Mobile for this fascination as she was certainly fond of tooting the horn and turning the wheel.

Our stay in Malaysia seemed to fly by pretty quickly and it was quite sad to leave Ah Ma and Ah Kong at the airport. At least they'll be in out with Mak Long next April for Eleanor's second birthday (yikes that's approaching quickly!). Ah Kong couldn't resist buying Nelly a toy she wanted before getting on the plane.

Next stop was a short stay in Singapore for a few nights to see James, Dora and little Thomas. We had seen Thomas just a while ago when he came to Toowoomba but James and Dora did not get a chance to see Eleanor then, so this was the first time the six of us have been together since Christmas at Coolum. It was really nice to see the kids play together and how they've changed in such a short time.

My most recent trip to Singapore had me staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel, which is right across from the new Gardens by the Bay but I didn't get a chance to check it out. Not wanting to miss it again we woke up early on Saturday to spend the morning walking around the trees. The Cloud Forest and Flower Dome looked interesting but we didn't feel like coughing up $28 each to go in, maybe next time when Nelly is a little older. The $5 for the elevated walkway was fine and well worth it for the view of the gardens and the surrounding area. 

For lunch that day we stuffed ourselves silly at the Regent high tea buffet. We'd been looking forward to this for a while and there were certainly a great selection of dishes to sample. Perhaps the only disappointment was the absence of the chilli crab sauce which was a previously available item. The kids were very well behaved and won a few admirers by the end of the day, including the head chef.

It was wonderful to have such a long uninterrupted break to spend time with Nelly and Alison. I really feel like she's grown up during our little trip overseas. I still wouldn't say that she's talking conversationally yet, but she's certainly speaking with new words and a vocabulary that grows by the week. In the back of my mind throughout the holiday I was thinking about how different life will be now that I'm home all the time with the new business. Given that I'll be able to spend more time with this little angel I'm so pleased that we decided to try a change in our lives.