One of my favourite times of the year is Chinese New Year. Each year we visit friends, some of whom we only meet annually during this holiday. It provides a refreshing of friendships and the opportunity to catch up on what each other has been doing, as well as deepening solid long-time friendships. This year was no different. We enjoyed the company of great people, food and happiness.
With Fidelia's university friend, Ka Yi, at CNY
At Grace and Kenny's house during CNY
Paying a visit to some old English students during CNY
Excitedly driving from house to house at CNY
With Mr. Khoo and family for CNY
Happy faces during CNY!
Large CNY group photo at Dato' Johny's house
Leah enjoying playing with sparklers at a friend's house for CNY
All dressed in red, as is typical during CNY
CNY wouldn't be the same without spending time with some of our longest friends in Kuantan
Love visiting our friends during CNY
My favourite CNY breakfast, nian gao
Posing for another photo with good friends at CNY
The boys provide the music for lion dances throughout CNY
After more than 9 years in Kuantan, we went back to England in November 2015. It was a double family holiday as we spent part of our time with my English family in Leicester and Nottingham, and part of our time with Fie's Malaysian family (who also flew over) in London.
I prepared for our England trip by fearing the worst regarding the 'weather' and 'food' - my imagination about them was 'dismal' and 'bland' respectively. As it turned out, we all loved the freezing cold weather as it was such a welcome contrast to the incessant heat we are accustomed to in Malaysia. There were times in England where I was outside and shivering, yet I learned to savour the experience. We also enjoyed the food, particularly the famous fish and chips, as well as the chocolate! Yes, the supermarkets were full of amazing chocolate at incredible prices!
We visited Leicester, Nottingham, Manchester, Bolton, Dagenham and London and met family, old friends and church friends. I went to Wembley, Old Trafford and the O2 Arena where I watched Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka play tennis. I entered the Mormon temple in London and twice travelled on an Airbus A380 - the first such experience in my life.
Our Malaysia Airlines Airbus A380 - the largest commercial aircraft in the world. It is an absolute beauty and an absolute beast! We enjoyed two beautifully smooth 13-hour flights on the A380 and would definitely fly on it again.
On board Malaysia Airlines' Airbus A380
Boarding the Airbus A380 at KLIA:
Takeoff on the Airbus A380!
Landing at London Heathrow:
Here I am back at my childhood home in Leicester, England
Met up with some of my old Leicester friends
Autumn at the park
A cold morning in Glenfield, Leicester:
Got together with my brother and sister and did some photo re-enactments. That was really fun!
It was great spending time with my English family after so long being away
No trip to England is complete without real fish and chips! It was so filling and was easily enough for two people
I was thrilled to return to the Ellis Park astroturf pitches to have a kick around with my brother. I spent countless hours in my childhood playing football here. It's a very nostalgic place for me!
And here's Gaz retrieving the football after one of my awful attempts at goal:
Photo at Bradgate Park in Leicester
Sitting on the rocks at Bradgate Park with my Leah
At Wollaton Hall, the residence that featured as Batman's house in the movie
Perhaps the highlight of the trip was going to the O2 Arena for the World Tour Finals. We got tickets to watch Rafael Nadal vs Stan Wawrinka and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Before we entered the stadium we bumped into the leading tennis umpire, Mohamed Lahyani by chance, and he was kind enough to pose for a photo with us!
A true photograph to treasure! Here we are with leading tennis umpire, Mohamed Lahyani, outside the O2 Arena in London
My wife and I hold the Malaysia flag at Old Trafford, home of Manchester United FC
The second portion of our trip was spent in Dagenham where we visited some of the main sights around London.
Seeing the sights in London
Visited Buckingham Palace
Stopped for a photo with two policemen in London. They were very happy to indulge us!
Visiting Westminster Abbey with Fie's family
Resting in St. James' Park with my wife and sisters
Another special moment was seeing Jae Jae the tiger at ZSL London Zoo
It was a great holiday and we did so many things and visited lots of places. We flew back on the Airbus A380 once more, a long 13-hour flight, followed by a quick 30-minute hop form KLIA to Kuantan.
Look at the size of those Airbus A380 engines!
Watching the beautiful sunset over Egypt on the Airbus A380 while flying back to Kuala Lumpur from London Heathrow
Our annual Kuching trip to see family was another great experience for us, particularly as we had new nieces, nephews and cousins to see this time around. Although it was too short (just 5 days) we made the most of it and had a very enjoyable time. All of our flights went smoothly and were very pleasant, though the flight back to KL did seem rather tiring despite it being under 2 hours. Here's the video of our take-off from KLIA2:
Lauren with her cousin, Ethan
With my beautiful niece, Bintang
Lauren joins her cousin, Noah, and his mummy for a picture
The weather in Kuching was so hot, a different kind of heat to Kuantan, and each journey out the house was tiring. My wife and Urai took Lauren on a small boat ride across the river to buy some kek lapis (layer cake) on our 2nd day. I rested at home as it was just way too hot.
I did sleep well though at night in the living room. We congregated the sofa and sofa bed to make one large 'mattress' and had a good sleep there.
Kuching Waterfront
Leah celebrated her birthday with a Frozen birthday cake
Party games
Party games
Urai and Anna cracking up!
The ladies
Family photo
A stunning ice-cream waffle!
Pushing the limits of my aging body!
We also had a great one night stay at Citadines ApartHotel together as a family. Took lots of photos and tried these gorgeous ice-cream waffles at a restaurant downstairs.
The Spring shopping mall, Kuching
Going swimming
Kuching at night
And here's a short video of our safe landing back at KLIA:
