Peter's Engagement Ceremony in Chicago

Aaron and I went to Chicago to my brother, Peter's wedding to his fiance, Kwan. The day before the wedding we had to go to the Thai Buddhist Temple in Chicago to perform a Buddhist ceremony for their engagement. Here are some pictures from the ceremony.

Video of Lara Playing with Winston Wu

For everyone who knows my friend Malay Wu in Shanghai. I am adding this video clip of her son Winston. I am playing with him at his grandparent's house. I thought this was a very fun video. I think playing with Winston those few days gave me and Aaron lots of luck on getting pregnant.

Visiting My Friend Malay

After the Olympics, I visited my friend Malay in Shanghai for a few days. Malay and I had not seen each other for almost a year and she was a great host.

Of course, I got to spend a lot of time with her son Winston. He is sooooooo cute. He is a very happy and fun loving baby. We played with his toys and even with his friends during a play group. I have included a video clip of him on our blog. During my time in Shanghai, we took a two-day trip to Hangzhou as well. It was quite beautiful. The main attraction was West Lake which is quite well known body of water. We walked along the waterfront and visited a temple nearby. Phillip was not in Shanghai but his parents were gracious to invite me to their home in Hangzhou. They were wonderful hosts and I had a good time visiting them.

Our trip to the 2008 Beijing OIympics

Well we made it to Beijing to see the Olympics and it was the best experience ever. We were there for 8 days and we saw 7 Olympic Events including the 4X100 Men's Freestyle Relay win the gold medal. We saw many of the traditional sights such as the Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. We also saw the new sights such as the Bird's Nest Stadium, the Water Cube and the Egg. The food in Beijing was awesome and we did a little shopping at the Pearl Market, Jade Factory and Cloisonne Factory. Beijing was very clean and if you are wondering how the pollution was see the two pictures below.















The first picture was taken the first day we arrived in Beijing and the second picture was taken in the middle of our trip. A few days after we arrived, there was a heavy rainstorm that cleared the sky up. It’s amazing the big difference in weather and temperature after it rained. So our trip was quite beautiful and we were breathing pretty good air.

If you would like to see more pictures of our trip, I was able to condense our abundance of pictures to only 3 slideshow albums showing our trip every few days. I know still alot of pictures but please watch them at your leisure. We also have a couple video clips for you to see. Enjoy!!

Beijing Olympics Part 1

Winning the Gold -U.S. Team

This may not be the clearest video but you can experience our experience.

Beijing Olympics Part 2

Beijing Olympics Part 3

The Watercube At Night

Summer BBQ 2008

In July, we sort of missed the Independence Day Celebrations in Singapore so we decided to just have a pool party and BBQ with our friends here. It was a lot of fun. All of our friends graciously brought food and drink to help us out. Lara made Chicken Satay, Thai Grilled Pork (Moo Ping), and hamburgers. Everybody at the party was also a really good sport. Due to some heavy rain in the afternoon, we had to start late and later in the evening, we moved the party up to our apartment when the rain came back again. Luckily, we had a couple of good hours at the BBQ grill. Our friends Travis and Markus really helped us a lot with the grilling. We really appreciated all their help because Boy Was It HOT!! at the grill.

Overall the party went well. It was so much fun having our friends over and just chilling by the pool. The party went well into the evening, and later that night, we even had a game of Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture.

Mahjong Group

As many of you know, Lara keeps pretty active in the social groups here in Singapore. This is a picture of the ladies who play mahjong with her. It was the last day of the season so she organized a party. Going forward, she will be organizing the mahjong group for the American Women's Association of Singapore. She has really enjoyed it.

Middle East trip to Dubai

Aaron had a business trip to Dubai so Lara decided to join him. It was very unique and quite exciting. Enjoy our slideshow.

Back in the U.S.A.

In May and June, I travelled to Chicago and San Francisco. Most of my time in Chicago was planning for Peter's, my brother, wedding and doing some housing searches for him and his new bride. They will be getting married this year. After visiting Chicago, I flew to San Francisco and met up with Aaron who had a conference with his professional group. While Aaron was at the seminar, I caught up with his friend Mike Barron and his girlfriend, Amy.

More Babies in the U.S.

During our visit to the Bay Area, we visited our friends, Alder and Ruth, who just had a new baby girl, Sparrow. Sparrow was really cute. We had a great visit which included a wonderful dinner that Ruth's mother made for us. Yum!!

We visited our friends Loren and Susie who also have a new baby girl, Luna. Luna also was so cute. Loren did show us a little technique to help calm Luna when she cried. Besides wrapping her real tight like a mummy, he puts her under the kitchen fan. I know it looks funny and borderline child abuse but if you believe it or not, it works. She stopped crying instantly. Like magic!!

Babies, Babies, Babies

In Thailand, I went to visit my mom's friend Dr. Prasert Prasartthong-Osoth. He is the owner of Bangkok Hospital and Bangkok Airways. He just got 3 new grandchildren. His daughter had one baby and his son had twins (the babies were a few months apart). It was so much fun playing with the babies. They were so cute. Dr. Prasert's daughter had a friend who was also having a baby so I was over to teach her how to make a diaper cake. It was a lot of fun with all the babies around.

Wedding Season - Thailand May 2008

In May, we also went to a wedding for my cousin, Thon and her fiance, Oak. It was at the Hyatt Erawan in Bangkok. It was a very lovely wedding with over 400 people. Again, lots of great food and Aaron and I even met a member of the Thai Parliament. Thai weddings are alway interesting and filled with surprises.

Since we were in Thailand, Aaron and I did some sightseeing with my mom at a royal museum. We saw a very unique exhibition of art masterpieces from the royal family. The collection included many artifacts made with embossed gold, green beetle wings, gold nielloware, damascene, enamel, and gold and silver. We also saw pictures made with woven silk and various silver and gold art pieces. Unfortunately, I could not take any pictures except for the pictures above of the museum building.
We also went with my grandmother, mother and her friends to a special outdoor food market on the outskirts of Bangkok. There was very tasty desserts and unique fruits. Aaron really liked tasting everything. We bought a lot of snacks like the coconut milk ice cream that I am holding above. Yum!!

Wedding Season - Hong Kong May 2008

We went to Hong Kong in May for a wedding. Our friends, Alan and Ann, who also work for Aaron at Calypso were married at Hong Kong City Hall and then they had a wonderful reception at the Shangri La Hotel. It was traditional Chinese meal with 14 courses. The food was really great but it was alot of food. I was too full. Ann, the bride, wore 5 dresses throughout the day. The guests also played mahjong (Chinese Tile Game) in a side room. I guess it is tradition. I did not join in because I was a bit intimidated. Overall, it was a beautiful wedding and we had alot of fun. In addition, we went to Victoria Mountain where we took a break between the afternoon ceremony and the evening reception.

After the wedding, we stayed an extra day to visit local sights and do a little of shopping. As always, we had Dim Sum at a local restaurant and checked out the wet market. Of course, Hong Kong was filled with roast duck, roast pork, soy sauce chicken, steam chicken, etc. Chicken and Ducks were even hanging at restaurants at the airport. It totally reminded me of Chinatown in the states.

Visiting Cousins in Thailand

Aaron and I spent some quality time in Thailand this time. Besides the reunion, we spent some time with my cousins and especially our soon to be new addition to our family, Arm. Arm and my cousin Unt (top left picture) will be married in August. Unbelievably, it is the same date as Peter's (my brother) wedding date, August 23rd. It must be a really good day because 2 different monks picked it out for the couples. Here, we are enjoying Iberry Ice Cream. Arm and Aaron really got a long, mainly because of similar interests.

Family Reunion in Thailand

This year, Aaron and I went to our family reunion on the traditional Chinese Memorial Day event for my family on my mother's side. We had the reunion at my great grandparents' house. It was good to see everyone together. We had our traditional offering rituals with the burning of money and gold. We even burned paper cell phones and jewelry. We also had chicken and roast duck as well as other foods to offer to the dead. My mother prepared a good picnic lunch for us as well. Afterwards, some of us took a boat tour of the Bang Bua Tong area. This was where my mother grew up as a child. Overall it was good to learn about our past and our family.

Going Back to Thailand March 2008

Hi! Grandma Tubtim

(Yai)

Its been long overdue for my blog. Sorry, I actually have been traveling and working. In late March, Aaron and I went to Thailand to visit my family and friends. My brother, Peter, and my mom came from the U.S. and we had a great time. Kwan, Peter's fiance came from Uttaradit to see us as well. Of course, a main reason to visit Thailand is to visit Grandma Tubtim. She is 93 this year and still going pretty strong. She is able to take care of herself and get around on her own. She loses her memory here and there but she remembers alot of the past when she was young and she always tells us some old family stories. She remembers a little Mandarin so she tries to speak with Aaron since she does not speak much English. We all had a great time hanging out with her. We also spent some time with my cousins and had a game party and my cousins Urk and Unt's house.

Happy Birthday! to my friend Tony.

The above collage was pictures from, my friend,Tony's birthday. Tony runs the Heartland Golf Schools in Thailand. He also oversees the school in Singapore. It has been a long time since I saw Tony. He and his wife Eye have a 1 year-old daughter. We had dinner at a very cool place called the Wine Bar in Bangkok. We met the owners and some of Tony's Heartland coworkers.

I wonder if you know how they live in Tokyo?

Recently, Aaron and I went to Tokyo. Aaron has had the opportunity to do some consulting with the clients in Tokyo at the office there. I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to tag along. We had to get out our warm clothes that we have not worn in quite some time.

From the pictures, you can see it was like spring time. It was not too cold but definitely a change from tropical Singapore. Now many of you might not agree but you can bear only so much tropical weather. Besides the cool city, Tokyo is very exciting. Lots of activities, shopping, theater, nightlife. We could not do it all but we found the best part, it was the great food. Very different from Singapore. Its really good especially if you like SUSHI. Aaron and I also sang the Tokyo Drift song everywhere we went. hahaha

We look forward to going back again which will be real soon.

GW Ball 2008

This is the George Washington Ball. The American Association of Singapore throws this fancy ball for its members each year and everyone gets dressed up. Lots of food and dancing. There was also a very special raffle with unique prizes like Asian Antique Furniture, Dinner Party for Ten, Diamond Jewelry Set and a silent auction for an all expense trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We did not win but Aaron and I had a great time with our friends.

Police Concert

Living in Singapore has many advantages. We got the opportunity to go to another big concert which was the Police Concert. Sting was really great. He sang all of our favorites i.e. Walking on the Moon, Roxanne, Every Breath You Take, etc. Aaron and I sat at the corner side of the stage so we had a good look of group. It was definitely and awesome experience.

Happy Birthday Lara and Happy Chinese New Year!!

The next celebration was Lara's Birthday on February 6th which coincidentally was also the eve of Chinese New Year. We went to Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant at Marina Bay sight of the famous Merlion. We decided to have a traditional chinese set menu which included Yusheng (Tossed Fish Salad). This tradition is only in Singapore.

Yusheng has a colourful array of ingredients including raw fish (in our case Salmon), shredded green and white radish, shredded carrots, pickled ginger, crushed nuts and pomelo. The ingredients were topped with various condiments including deep-fried flour crisps, crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, cinnamon, pepper and other spices. Then it is tossed with a generous portion of plum sauce, lime juice, and cooking oil to add sweetness and taste. We were told to toss it ourselves and say good things that we wish for this year so the wishes will come true. It was a lot of fun.

We also had some other really good dishes such a whole steam fish with ginger and soy sauce, stir-fried oysters and chestnuts, and Nian Gao (tapioca floured dessert with shredded coconut or deep-fried with pistachios). The night ended with wonderful fireworks for CNY.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Whooops don't forget the Surprise Party!

My birthday was extra special this year because our new expat friends had a surprise birthday dinner for me. Aaron blind folded me and took me to our friends Stephanie and Marcus's home to enjoy Raclette which is a dinner with a special hot grill pan in the middle of the table and everyone gets these little tiny pans that inside the grill pan. We were able to grill vegetables, meats, cheeses, breads, etc. It was really delicious food and alot of fun. My friends were so great and I feel so special to have them in my life. Thank you Jessica and Stephanie for organizing.

Happy Birthday Aaron!!

After our New Year celebration, it was one celebration after another. First, Aaron had his birthday on January 8th and it was probably the 2nd time in 6 years that we have ever celebrated Aaron's birthday together. Mainly, because of the living apart and the traveling. We had a lovely dinner at this beautiful restaurant on a cliff at Sentosa Island. It, appropriately was called, the Cliff, and we had the best seafood menu. Coincidentally, there was a special chef from Texas who was showcasing his cooking in Singapore for a week there. He is known for Creole and Cajun food. It was really delicious.

Our Holidays in Australia 2007