The Butterworth Side of the Family

With Dad, Mom, Granddad, Grandmom and Auntie Doreen


Mom's eldest brother and wife, with Granddad, Grandmom and our little monster


The other brothers and their wives


Hazel and her cousins


More cousins


This is a family of connoisseurs - see! salmon & squid sashimi (OK Dad, I've corrected it like you pointed out - it's not tuna of course!)


Fud-thiu-cheong (Buddha jumps wall) - an exotic (and expensive) soup made with all seafood imaginable - allegedly so good that the Buddha jumped over the wall to have it - and I thought the Buddha was vegetarian (blasphemy's the last thing on a Chinese's mind by the way)


A roasted suckling pig - poor piggy


Abalone, mushrooms, foo-phey (I think) and broccoli


Having a feast of a time

Away with the Evil Spirits

Opening ceremony of a shop in Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur

What's Chinese New Year without a lil bit of Lion Dance and fire crackers to scare away the evil spirits huh?


No idea who this is. Chinese Lions love green bananas I guess.


Lions going after their prize money (that bit of lettuce hanging on the porch) - lettuce, bananas and money, plus lots of noise, that's about all you need for the lions I guess.


Fire crackers as a finishing touch to make sure no evil spirits remain

CNY 2010 Ipoh

At the Mun Choong Restaurant in Pasir Puteh

Grandma’s condition has stabilized and we’re back in Dubai again, after 6 flights on 5 different airlines through 6 different airports in 3 different countries.

And that’s just for visiting our homes in Malaysia and India.

Anyway, I’ve finally downloaded the photos taken during Chinese New Year, so here’re some of them. Many of you would have seen some of these pictures on Facebook before, thanks to my suddenly Facebook-enthusiastic dad. Must be the joys of grandfather-hood, if there’s such a word.

Grandmother, be strong

My 93-year old grandma has just come out of the Intensive Care Unit. She had a bout of life-threatening pneumonia and other complications due to her advanced age. She’s not completely well yet, but her condition’s stabilized. Grandma, hold on OK? I am coming home.

It’s nice to hear that in these times of difficulty, so many family members visited her and chipped in to help with the medical bills. So many well-wishers prayed and donated blood which she needed. We don’t know how aware she is now of her surroundings. She’s been asleep most of the time for the past month, waking up dazed, not being able to speak coherently, not wanting to eat… She’s lost most of her strength, not being able to even lift a teaspoon or to hold a cup, let alone eat by herself. She’s wheel-chair bound when not asleep. Her biggest fear I know when we can still communicate was that she’d end up not being able to walk or to do things. She’s told me a few times that she wants to go back to be with God before this happens. This however is not the case. God has His own designs. Grandma is still here for a reason.

Last year, on her birthday, Granny told us to bring back a great-grandchild for her. We brought back Justin. This year during Chinese New Year, the most certain thing that’ll wake Grandma up from her deep almost day-long slumber was Justin’s crying. We feel blessed to be able to let Grandma hold Justin in her arms. Grandma, be strong OK? We’re coming home.


Grandma with Justin, Chinese New Year 2010

Helen in Dubai

With the Burj Al-Arab at the Souq Madinat Jumeirah

I have loads of pictures that I want to post in the blog, but the trouble is… I’m a classic procrastinator (and therefore things which happened in February and March, …and to a certain extend, January, are still in the memory card, in the camera). And so here comes pictures of our aunt in Dubai! At least these are quite recent, not like some of the pictures I’ve gathered and saved in the computer which I will post, eventually, before 2020 hopefully. See, Vision 2020 is not an exclusive term of Malaysia (Mahathir didn’t copyright it), India has it, heck, even Rwanda’s put 2020 as the year to achieve developed status (I heard it on Radio BBC yesterday). And at the rate we’re going, we might as well change ours to Vision 3030.


Souq Madinat Jumeirah


One of the shops in the Mall of the Emirates


In front of the big aquarium at Dubai Mall


The 828m high Burj Khalifa at night


In front of Al-Wasl Hospital where Justin was born


Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah

Sleepy after New Year

The Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur

Hello! Wishing anyone who reads this a Happy & Prosperous Year of the Tiger! I’ve just returned from a short 2-week break back home, the first Chinese New Year I’ve spent in Malaysia since 2005. This is a Chinese New Year of firsts for me, the first one with my wife and child, and the first time we gave angpows (and collected angpows at the same time, thanks to baby, we love you baby, for giving us spending money, hehehe).

For those I didn’t manage to meet, or to contact, please forgive me. We have 101 errands to do in 3 different cities, due to our long time away from home.

And that’s all I can think of writing for the time being. You know, it takes time to recover from a holiday break. Shit, am I sleepy… Here’re some random photos of Malaysia for the time being. Nope, there’re not recent photos, it takes time to download the photos from the camera to the computer ok?


Putra Mosque, Putrajaya


The foodcourt beside Putra Mosque




Scenes from the foodcourt beside Putra Mosque - like it or not, we somehow end up in Putrajaya on every trip back home. This time round it was for the kid's passport.


Anu, Jiko and the gods of good fortune, prosperity and longevity


From a shop in Sungai Wang (I think!)

One Month Old & Growing Fast

Here're more pictures of the little monster.




Justin, 1.5 months old, enjoying himself on his tasty little hand during a shopping trip at Souq Madinat Jumeirah.


Justin, enjoying his daily bath, 29 days' old


Naked baby, on the verge of being subjected to water torture by known assailant


Justin, 1-month old, with his typical owl impression


Justin, with his typical tomato impression, he'll turn as red as a tomato in time


2010 New Year's Day at the Mall of the Emirates, Justin's 1-month old birthday

New Year in the Desert

The road to Moreeb Dune, Liwa, UAE some 400km away from Dubai

These are pictures of what we did on New Year’s Day last year. Last year’s theme was, I felt, better. This year’s theme would have been ‘New Year with Shingles’ as I was down with the sickness from 29th December onwards. I’m just about recovered now. Shingles is the common term for herpes zoster or ‘snake’ in Chinese.




Anu's pre-mummy days

Tell somebody you have herpes whatever and the first thing you’ll notice will be a curious look (like a look wondering what you did to get yourself a herpes infection), or an embarrassed look, as if herpes is the scourge of the earth. Herpes zoster as I found out, is not the sexually transmitted disease that people commonly relate to as herpes. Shingles is caused by the chicken pox virus and resides in your nerve cells. When your immune system is weak, the virus comes up to the skin and creates a rash with blisters much like the chicken pox blisters. That’s my doctor’s story anyway. The best thing to get the body back into good shape is a good rest, and that’s why I was on sick leave for about a week. Anyway, the shingles have left a string of pock marks on my forehead so that I’ll look more rugged and manly the next time you see me.




Gary's pre-shingles days

Shingles or not, we celebrated our little baby’s one month old birthday by distributing red eggs and Fried Chicken (no, not KFC, some other local fried chicken) to my Malaysian colleagues and had a nice Chinese dinner on New Year’s Day with a friend here.


Our trusty old company pickup that brought us to the Moreeb Dune (Tal Mireb) and back, in one day, about 800km all in


Camels amidst the sand

Christmas Excursion 2009

Christmas Lunch at the Hatta Fort Hotel, UAE

I’m back with pictures. Our mission on Christmas Day last year was to get Auntie Helen’s visa extended. Malaysians are typically given a 30-day stay in the UAE upon arrival. As she had to stay more than 30 days, we had to literally skip to another country and back to get an extra 30 days on her visa. Either that or pay an exorbitant amount to have it extended in the immigration office here.

So off we went to Hatta, the town bordering the Omani border. Anu and baby hung around in the Fort Hotel there while we made a u-turn across Oman. So, for all you guys out there, Auntie Helen has officially been to Oman, even if it’s just going into the Omani Immigration Complex at the border to get her passport stamped.


Swimming Pool, Hatta Fort Hotel


Jiko, having a go at riding a camel


Jiko, somewhere at the UAE-Oman Border near Hatta


Desert scene at Madam, halfway between Dubai and Hatta


Madam, where the Dubai people go for desert safaris (i.e. driving their 4WDs and buggies into the dune sand)