Hosting family joy.....

After finishing one hosting duty, my family and I hosted our own families members last Sunday. As it was an opportunity to have my nephew, Ryan and niece, Ashley plus Wei, Jade, mom-in-law and Kenneth spending some time, my entire family was elated with joy. The thought of having to spend some good times with Ryan, Ashley and the rest of the family members brought a lot of cheer to our hearts. After all, we have not been back to Seremban for some time and moreover, Wei & Jade had been a real blessing us a lot whenever we are down in Seremban. So, this was an opportunity for us to bless them in return for all the goodness, blessings and fine food they had extended to us. It would certainly be an honour for me to host them this time around. My only fear was we could not do enough for them. Knowing that they are on their way to Melaka, I rushed down to the Batu Berendam Ball Ball chicken rice stall to pack the goodies for them.Along the way, the traffic flow was crazily heavy while the wait at the stall was even more crazy. The uncle was chopping the "pak cham kai" ( boiled/hot scalded chicken ) and was clearly getting agitated as the crowd of customers grew. For me, I thought it was unnecessary for him to "lose it" as more customers meant "ka-ching ka-ching" to the cash register! Anyway, I got in packed food after waiting in line for 30 minutes. Earlier in the morning, we had vacuumed the house, kept the floor squeaky cleaned and got everything ready to host.

When they finally arrived in the later part of the morning, they contented themselves with the fare that had been prepared - Ball Ball Chicken Rice. SLing and myself just enjoyed ourselves with the children, Ryan & Ashley plus Kenneth , a budding lawyer was around this time to enjoy a stress free days ahead. After having their tummies tucked in with the chicken rice balls, we were off to Jusco for some escape from the blistering heat of the sun. Cooling off and having window shopping around Jusco Melaka was a great way to chill out. Most of the shops were slashing prices and there were still shoppers who would go out with their limbs, legs and wallets to spend some more for the festive season. I was contented to play around with the kids and just having fun with them. Then, it was off to Nyonya Makko Restaurant for some Peranakan fare. Thank God earlier, we had made reservations with the proprietor, Maureen, our friend, who was gracious enough to take our reservation. The only thing was that she pleaded to us to be on time for our reservation as they  would have a lot of customers on that day. When I got there, I saw the reason for her to request for us to be early. The list on the waiting list was as long as the A4 writing pad paper,man! Anyway, we got ourselves tenggiri cut cili garam, tengiri cut chuan-chuan, ngor hiang, sambal udang & sotong petai, chap chai, kerabu mangga, udang goreng tepung, telur cincalok, sambal belacan and lastly Peranakan cendol. It was a joy seeing the faces light up when they ate the dishes fare prepared. The food was tasty and good. Like all Peranakan food fare, they could be pricey a bit but to me, the taste outstrips the price for it. I felt it was a fair price to pay for such a fare and I really enjoyed it very much. I did  not mind the price as long as the food tasted good and moreover, nothing is pricey when it comes to hosting families,ok? I thanked Maureen for the good food and the hospitality. In fact, I am indebted to Maureen coz' every time I booked a place in her restaurant, she would obliged me and I would get a pretty good place to sit and the meals always at the more than satisfactory level. So, thank you so much, Maureen.

For desserts, we headed out to Tengkera Road for the famed fragrant putu piring fare. Again, as it was the holidays, there was a queue there and SLing got No.68 and they were serving No.57. So, there are 11 customers ahead of us and we waited again. Afterall, good food fare required patience! SLing, Wei & Jade, the children and mom-in-law headed home first while Kenneth, SYuen and myself left later after collecting the delicacy. I decided to make a pit stop at Taman Asean for the Fish Slice Bee Hoon soup fare. I managed to pack the bee hoon soup special as late supper fare. It was fun seeing all of them enjoying the beehoon soup fare and the putu piring delight. Spending time with the family was fun but tiring altogether as you've got to get to the destinations in time as there will be a crowd the following day as it was a long holiday season. As I thought of what to do next, I dozed off only to be told the following morning that I had snored the loudest ever! Guess, I was really tired but I certainly did not feel that way.

The following morning, it was off to Tangkak Beef Noodle house for some breakfast. Again, the joy on the faces of family members made my day a lot. Then, it was off to Taming Sari Tower for a historical sight-seeing day. Ryan and Ashley were gleefully enjoying themselves as they boarded the "spaceship'! That was what they called the rotating tower. It was a great way to view Melaka town from the top and my family made the trip twice in a space of 2 days! It was off to the old Bomba truck , Air Force plane and the KTM train next. The children seemed to enjoy it a lot minus the usual heat wave as they were a lot of shades around especially the huge trees. We then proceeded to A'Famosa, took some photographs and got Jade and the children to have a trishaw ride round the historical sites. After taking some time off at Dataran Pahlawan to cool off after being under the sun, we rested at Starbucks for a while. Then we were off to Taiwan Pork Mee for some goody fried porky stuff ! Again, the queue and crowd was there and we again, waited for our food. When the good stuff finally came, we finished them in about 20 minutes while we had waited for our food for about 40 minutes. Amidst the sweltering heat and sweaty glands overdrive, we quickly headed for home for some rest and relief of the air-cond before getting ready for our next itinerary.

At about 6.30pm sharp, no trip to Melaka would be satisfying without a trip to our secret place. ( Don't want the kiasus to know or else, they just spoilt the place with their arrogance and tweety bird chirp!! Bloody Singaporeans! Loathe them for coming over and spoiling the food prices in Melaka! ) Again, we had to wait for one hour and a half for our food. Usually,  it wasn't that long but I guess, with relatives coming back from outstation and all that, the crowd gets big -lar. This time, SLing ordered the specialities - black pepper deer meat, kung pow frog legs, House special mee with gravy, garlic pork, brussel sprouts, curried wild boar meat, Pi Pa duck and meat rolls delight. Wah! Always so satisfying. Eat until stomach want to burst out! Again, good food and great fun eating the food. You could just see how stress the staff were when they had such a big crowd of patrons. To me, that's pure good business and good service. Happy with the service and very happy with the food. If my family guests are happy, I am one happy dude, man! Seriously, I couldn't asked for more. The food was, as always, good tasting and enjoyable. Never thought we could finished such humongous portions but we did it ! Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! That night , everyone sleep with a big smile on their faces, I guess with hands rubbing their tummies!

Breakfast was at Ipoh Restaurant at Air Keroh before Wei, Jade, mom-in-law, Kenneth and the two kiddies, Ryan & Ahsley headed for home. Yeah! It is hard to say goodbyes after spending some time with them. It is always a joy being able to host these lovely people. I say this not because I want to win any popularity contest or whatsoever. We genuinely love having our families over coz' the fact is that Wei & Jade hardly travel at all. So, it is a welcome sign always to have them with us and we want to share our home and hospitality with them. Like I said, good blessings should always be returned with greater blessings. Wei & Jade had really been a great blessing to us as a family and this is our small way of saying "thank you" to them though we would probably make them grow "fat" with the places we brought them for makan!!! Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..................................

Yunno, the last few days may have been hectic days for us and me , personally but nothing beats spending time with family - be it from Pastor Geoffrey's family right to our own family members. It is a tremendous blessing being able to spend time and enjoying the finer days of life with such memories. These are moments which no wealth could replace them and they come once in your lifetime. I treasure those moments - from the children's laughter and their incessant cries at night , the joy written over the faces and the expression of satisfaction of having enjoyed a good meal, the sweat under the sun and the various facial expressions - good or bad! These are moments that you bring close to the heart. These are moment you know which could only be a part of your life and no one could take that away from you. These are personal moments of joy. A joy that brought a thousand smiles in your heart!~