Last December was the most memorable December ever – December 2019! Lots of memories carved with loved ones, family and friends!
• 5 Uni-mates get together!
• 4 families having a great meal together!
• 3 families in a house of 3 bedrooms (13 pax) for a night!
• 2 families sharing lots of fun activities over the few days
• 1 memorable event to mark the years that had past but friendship endures among 5 Uni-mates!
It will be in my memoirs as one of the best month ever… The events that enfolded circulated around “L.O.V.E” – family love, friendship love and lots of fun elements too! I had never imagined this would be possible with the separate hectic lifestyle that all of us led. HEY! but, we finally did it! A great gathering indeed!
For the last 25 years, my life was all about work and career commitment. Those were my top priorities and my family always came in second! I made a great change last year and now my family comes first! All my decision circulates around them, putting them first among all things! I’m truly grateful and blessed to be able to do this. My greatest pillar of strength – of course, my DH (Darling Husband). Nothing would be possible if not because of him! Thank you dear!!! 😘😘😘 [He was my Uni-Mates, therefore, 5 friends, 4 families, hehehe. We just celebrated our 20 years Anniversary last Jan 2020]😍
Our December busy schedule starts here!
4TH TO 7TH DECEMBER – FAMILY TRIP TO HATYAI
We did a self drive trip from KL to Hatyai, Thailand with the kids. You may also read the link below on the self drive experience – thumbs up! Worth all the time spent on the research and we enjoyed it very much!
Self drive road trip from KL to Hatyai
We visited quite a number of places and among them were the followings :
KIM YONG MARKET
One can get varieties of snacks here and do bargain for a good price. The cashew nuts are one of the favorite, with lots of different flavour, including Tom Yam flavour!
FLOATING MARKET
We enjoyed the great experience to interact with the trader who sells from their boat! Baby C were astonished by the way the food were traded! She enjoyed the cold drinks served in a bamboo trunk and clay figurine!
Panoramic view of Floating market
Floating Market – View from the bridge above!
Assorted drinks served in the bamboo trunk!
Ice cream in the nice clay figurine! Baby C claimed it and nobody can go near the ducky…
GREENWAY NIGHT MARKET
Baby A enjoyed the shopping experience here and wished we could have spent longer time here! She got herself some souvenirs – socks and cute tote bags!
BANKAMPU
Baby A loves crab and this is one of the must-go restaurant! It has a nice spread of crab dishes and we include one of their signature dish in our choice that night! Yum Yum!
Bankampu

A nice restaurant serving assorted crab dish – a popular tourist spot.
Shop front View of “Bankampu”
Great spread for a family of 5!
Close-up view of the assorted crab dish
Fresh Oyster for hubby and me! Yummilicious!
Fried Squid
SONGKHLA CITY & SAMILA BEACH
Samila beach is a great place for a nice stroll. The wind was blowing profusely on that day and nothing beats the sea breeze brushing against the hair while we strolled! Taking a picture with the mermaid is a must-do activity here! We did a family picture there for remembrance!
On our way to Samila Beach, we made a pitstop for quick lunch at Mee Dee Cafe. Nice ambience and great host since we are the only customer then. They also made 2 extra free drinks for us to try! 👍
https://www.tripzilla.com/tigerair-hat-yai-songkhla-thailand/15575
We got hungry on the way to the beach and found this nice restaurant by the roadside and decided to give it a try…
6 drinks for 5 pax? Hehehe! One FOC drink for us who happen to be the only patron at that moment.
View from the beach – Songkhla City
Songkhla City Beach is nice for a stroll and tourist are seemed to queue up for a pic with Golden Mermaid Statue.
There are a lot of seafood restaurant around but we were quite full from the stopover at Mee Dee earlier, so, we gave it a miss.
love this pic of ABC! Siblings bonding at the beach!
Father and son sharing some info…
PHRA NON (RECLINING BUDDHA IMAGE) WAT LAEM PHO
Reclining buddha garden was so serene! Nice place for some pictures!
https://www.thailandtourismdirectory.go.th/en/info/attraction/detail/itemid/1060
Reclining buddha – nice serene garden
We bid farewell to Hatyai and also those pokemons that we left in the various gym around Hatyai. Hehehe, one of our family activities while in Hatyai…”pokemoning”. This is the front view of the house we call “home” for 4days, 3nights. Bye and hope to see you soon again!
The drive back from Hatyai to Malaysia was nice – manage to capture some sunset view!
7TH TO 11TH DECEMBER – PENANG
On our way back from Hatyai to KL, we visited our Uni-mate, Sis S in Penang! Haven’t met her for more than 3 years! She is the friend that I mentioned in my other blog published as below :
Connecting with close friend 380km away and family member abroad ^.^
She was so kind to accommodate and host us for few days at her beautiful 3-storey house. She cooked for us and I felt so warm while having those home-cooked meals! It felt like going back to “hometown”. She is definitely more than a friend. She had always been there for me from the very beginning of our journey to the west – West Malaysia 😂, when we embarked on the twinning study programme, 28 years ago. Thus, my kids called her “Ee Ee”, which means Aunt and she is like a sister to me! “Thank you my dear Sis S for having us!”
We spend the most wonderful few days scouting around Penang for great Penang cuisine! Every meal and every restaurant we patronised, there must be “Cha Kueh Teow”, ie Fried Kueh Teow on the table for sharing! We enjoyed Hokkien Mee, Lobak, Pasembur, and many more!
As Christmas is around the corner, Sis S brought us to the Christmas Bazaar at Esplanade, where the children had a blast! They were running wild in the open field next to the bazaar. A liveband was performing Christmas carols and it was just bliss, siting on the grass enjoying nice music at the background while looking at the kids having great fun. The kids enjoyed kite flying and shooting illuminated air launchers. Great activities to get them sweat it all out! Christmas mood is in the Air! Yeah!
Great ambience for pre-Christmas celebration!
The days past real fast and it’s time to head home! On the departure date, Sis S stuffed our car boot with loads of Penang goodies…That’s what our parents would do during the hometown visit, right? With heavy heart, we bid farewell and head home after being away for more than a week! The kids had teary eyes as we depart for home!
A reminder for myself : simple happiness as such (meeting with close friends and catching up session) is just priceless. If we put our minds to it, we can make it happen! We shall not procrastinate and create excuses, as life is short and whatever we desire and wish to accomplish NOW, we have to ACT now!
When we reached home tired and happy, we thought all the fun is over until we received great news the next day!
HOORAY! Finally Sis S is coming for a visit! 💃💃💃
She was convinced that her long overdue trip plan to KL had to be NOW! When I got the call that they finally fixed the dates to come for visit, I was over the moon and my full-blast cleaning mode was set ON! I could not procrastinate anymore.
Took out all the extra mattresses from the closet to be aired in the SUN! Bed-sheets were also taken out to be rewashed to smell the best! Making some plans for the kids and adults to ensure everyone’s interests are well thought through. At the same time, Sis U will also spent a night with us!
Sis U alongside Sis S were the two great friends that were with me all along during the Uni years! We weather through so much, thick and thin! We were labeled as the “3 girls from East Malaysia”!
3 families were to cramp into a small house of 3 bedrooms in my humble home! Oh, what the hack! Let’s just do it! The excitement grows as the date get closer!
16TH TO 20TH DECEMBER – SIS S’S FAMILY CAME TO VISIT AND SIS U CAME FOR OVERNIGHT!!! THE FUN BEGINS!
Finally, The arrival of Sis S’s family and the fun-filled gathering began. We had steamboat dinner with D’s family and U’s family. 4 families – 16 pax, 2 tables! A good night out with great updates from all!
Sis U’s family came to join-in the fun and she managed to persuade her kids to join too. Since we moved in to this house 13 years ago, this is one of the largest crowd that stayed overnight at our humble home! Our family occupied the master bedroom, while Sis S settled in Baby B&C’s room and Sis U in Baby A’s room! Baby ABC get to bump-in with us in the master bedroom – and I can tell their excitement being in the same room with us. I guess it brought back the memories of yesteryear sleeping in our room. Baby A slept in our room till she was 10 years old while Baby B, 7 years old. [They were so comfortable on the floor and didn’t moved back into their respective room until weeks later. To tell you the truth, I loved waking up enjoying the sight of them sleeping like babies, just like old days when they were much younger! Hehehe!]
The 3 of us (S, U & me) had a good chat, just like college days. Those were the days where we get to stay up late and chat away till morning. While the rest snuggled nicely in their respective bed, we settled into the reclining sofa each and chat away!!!…Sis S had great memory and share lots of stories – stories that we had forgotten but when she share those stories, some tiny whiny details resurfaced, reconnecting us to the past! Those were the days that we cherished together! We had a good laugh about those stupid things we did! So much of Ups and Downs that we shared together! It’s been 25 years and our friendship is still strong! Our chat didn’t end past midnight, nor 3am, nor 5am…we chat till 7am the next morning! Can you believe that???
We manage to catch 3 hours of sleep before the “whole village” woke up and bombard us with questions : What are we having for breakfast? What is the plan for the day? Are we going out? Where are we going? and the list went on and on…..
Our first programme for the day would be SUSHI MAKING! I began preparing the ingredients (Japanese Zucchini, Tamago, crab stick, radish, sausage, etc) and the kids were gathering around anxiously to roll sushi with their own choice of ingredients! All excited and let’s roll-on, baby! It was a great session and I’m relieved that the kids enjoyed them. Soon after, Sis U packed up and ready to leave as she’s taking a flight back to hometown the next morning. The rest of the day were spent lazing at home spending quality time with kids!
A lot of sharing about life events, loved ones, and future plans and challenges! Whatever it may be, we shall stay strong and try to do our best for our family!
Soooooo glad we had this get-together session! Yeah! We learned so much from one another and I hope the next one does not need to be at our kids wedding….😂😂😂
Stay-tuned for Part II coming up!
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