Max and Melissa's Wedding | Suffolk House

Brayden 7Y11M29D

Bevlynn 3Y8M22D

It was on 22.2.2025 at Suffolk House Penang. An early start to the day. 

All of us woke up early to prepare our make-up and dressed up. Bev and Bray were the Flower Girl and Ring Boy. It was a nice garden wedding. Everyone dressed up to match the day. It was a long-awaited day. Max and Melissa are getting married on the year they both turned 30. 

The weather was sunny; good for an outdoor wedding. 

Suffolk House is a nice location. There is a colonial white building surrounded by greeneries. There is a river beside it.  

When the wedding marching song started, Bev and Bray first walked down the aisle. Both were very good with pacing their walk and throwing the white petals. Then came the bridesmaids; beautifully dressed in different designs of light pastel green dresses. As Melissa walked down the aisle with her father towards Bro Max, I could feel the rush of happiness for him. A flash of memories came over me, how I used to carry him when he was a baby, playing in the old house in Bukit Dumbar, him running to my school class to ask for Jie Jie, to now..... he's taking a big step forward; marrying a beautiful humble woman. I held back my tears. 

They said their vows and prayers, and said "I do". 

We had the tea ceremony and funnily, the necklace I bought for him could not fit through his head. He was slightly in pain as the necklace got caught in his hair. 

Finally, the buffet lunch started. The food spread was good; especially the fish. Most importantly, we got to gather as an extended family and spoke of the good ol' days. 

When I got home, I just realized the meaning of the theme they have printed on their handmade keychains: Khaixintothemax (Being Happy to the Max) - Khai Xin is Melissa's Name. Such good combination. I wish them both the most blissful marriage life. 

Temple | Jurong Lake Garden | Valentine's Day

Brayden 7Y11M22D

Bevlynn 3Y8M15D

We went to the Sattha Puchaniyaram Buddhist Temple on Sunday. Coincidently, it was the birthday of the young month there, so they had arranged a buffet to celebrate. 

We took a drone to try out at an open badminton court; which Bray claimed from his speech academy. It crashed multiple times, it's not so easy because it flew by very quickly (not in the direction you want). 

We went to the Jurong Lake Garden in the afternoon. But it was quite late. We took the bus from our home and arrived at the small entrance at the Jurong Town Hall Road. We had to walk pass the big field, Japanese Garden before we arrived to the Play Pavilion for the children. 

The children find it hard to walk on their slippers; with the long grass. It was itchy but fun. We walked passed the Eden Cafe and Canopy Restaurant in the Japanese Garden. This is the first time we came to Japanese Garden after the revamped. It was beautiful and picturesque, when we walked passed the pagoda, a large lily pond, bridge and latterns hanging at the entrance (I wonder if it is because of CNY). It was almost close to sunset, the strong wind had brought together with it some dark clouds. We were starting to feel some drizzle as soon as we arrived the play area. The children wanted to continue playing, it was empty with no children for the first time. We told them to stay beneath the canopy to avoid the raindrops. 

After a while, when the night set in, the children showered at the water tap near the toilet. We walked over to Fusion Spoon for dinner. The path was pitch black. My thoughts "What if the monitor lizard we saw the other day walked passed us?" we quickly walked with just a spotlight from our phone. 

After dinner, we played with our shadows and the children laughed so much. We found an unwanted styrofoam airplane in the pool and brought it home. 

On 15th day of CNY, we wanted to buy some tong yuan but it was not available in the store. So we ate it the next day instead. 

On Valentine's Day, I had a date with Hub at Westgate for lunch. I was late because my meeting at work lasted longer than it should be. I told Hub to wait at Coffee Smith. As I arrived, huffing and puffing from the running, I saw him at a corner with a bouquet of beautiful pink roses. He had not bought me flowers for ages.... We giggled as we could imagine him walking about with the flowers with strangers' eyes looking at him. I brought the flowers back to office, I loved it. It accompanied me as I rushed my work until late night by myself in the office. I felt very inspired, motivated - knowing someone is always there. 

To Hub: 

You are my love, my safety net. I don't know how I got so lucky with you. When times are tough and challenging, when I felt like giving up (everything), you stand by me. With all my imperfections, you accept me for who I am. My heart still beats quickly for you, like a young lover with a crush, even after all these years. (It's true) I love it most when we giggle and laugh at most random things. And when we are holding hands, walking behind our children (to their school or playground every day) watching them grow, as we grow old together. It felt like we are leaving a trail behind with lots of memories; the ones we will look back to one day and make us giggle with our wrinkly faces. Love you Bey💕

Penang Miao Hui - Temple Festival

Brayden 7Y11M5D

Bevlynn 3Y7M29D

Day 4 CNY, we went to Paragon Gurney to buy some nice dresses from Bebe Butterfly for Bro Max's upcoming wedding. The front overlooking the beach is gone, now there is a park. After the children had some Pokemon catching with bro Max, we headed to the city for the Penang Miao Hui (Penang Temple Festival). 

It was packed with people. The first spot we came to had a taichi performance. One of the boothes gave away paper caps in the shape of a dragon or snake for the children. Many people are dressed in beautiful colourful traditional clothes. Another stage has an opera singing performance. We went into several temples for the clans. There were antiques on display. There were young story-tellers sharing about stories from the past. There was one which I found fascinating in particular. In the past, when the folks from the town did not have enough money, they would go to the pawn shop "kedai pajak" to trade off their gold or personal belongings of value for some cash. Also, there is another practice, when the children were naughty, the parents would "trade" their children at the pawn shop for RM1. Alternatively, the parents would also give their children as "godchildren" to Gods. This they believe would turn the children good. I remember when Bro Gene was young and naughty, my mother did bring him to the temple to be a "godchild".

Hub was carrying Bevlynn on his shoulders, while Max was piggy-backing Brayden. I love it when they are at this age when they are following us in every moment. 

Another lane had all the CNY chops for completing tasks related to CNY. We continued for awhile more and there were Lion Dance performance and Violin performance. 

There is another lane which is displaying all the different instruments from different cultures and races; Malaysia, Indian. We played the galeman with the Chinese song "tian mi mi". It was fun. It definitely felt different from the time we came many many years ago. 

As soon as we were about to leave the place, Bevlynn started nodding off. She's too tired but kept awake for the excitement. 

Due to traffic, we were late for a dinner with family at Sungai Nibong. 

On the day we were leaving, Bro Max shared that he will be moving out from the family home after his wedding. Mom was upset. I can understand how a Mom would feel when her children decided to leave, but I am happy for my brother for his big step forward in life. Wishing him all the happiness! He will be registered a day after Hub's birthday.   

Happy Birthday Hub!

Eve, Day 1-3 CNY | Super Crab Best Seafood Restaurant | Flame Restaurant | CNY Georgian Reunion

Brayden 7Y11M5D

Bevlynn 3Y7M29D

This year CNY is celebrated in Penang. We had bought the tickets 1 year before. FIL came along on this trip. 

First, we visited the Penang Snake Temple. There are more tourists visiting because of the Snake Year. We went to the garden filled with green poisonous snakes on the trees, all staying still in their position on the branches. We took a family photo with the big python. 

On CNY eve, Brother-In-Law touched down at Penang too. We visited Uncle Chai's house at Paya Terubong. As usual, we had the steamboat and prayers for Uncle Chai and ancestors. We played cards with my Uncles and Aunties. The children, especially Brayden was excited with the card games. 

We had booked a reunion dinner at Super Crab Best Seafood Restaurant. We ordered the 9-course meal with crab yee sang, chilli crab and lobsters. The location is about 5 minutes drive away from our house. After dinner, we tucked the children in early. 

10 minutes before the clock strike 12 am, the loud bang and crackling sounds had started. Fireworks after fireworks started to lit the dark night sky. Bevlynn was awaken by the sound and she cried. But after awhile, all of us ran outside to get close-up view of the fireworks from the neighbours' houses and also played some at our home. The last fireworks ended around 12:40 am. That's how Penangite starts the celebration of CNY. 

Day 1-2 CNY, we have the families coming over to my home. We cooked some traditional CNY meals; mengkuang char, mee suah, seafood, abalone broccoli, butter prawns, fish; and the family secret recipe of "chim chor" - prawn meat fried dumpling. 

Mom could not cook because she accidentally cut her hand while preparing. Good thing, the rest of the family stepped in; Uncle Poh, 大姑 and Jaq all helped with the cooking.

At night, Mom wanted to go to Kek Lok Si. Max drove us there. It was really jam and Bev did not have her shoes with her. Bray did not bring along and gave me the "I don't know" how-this-happen-look. Max drove to Sunshine Farlim and bought new shoes for Bev. Before he arrived with the new shoes, we were walking about the base of Kek Lok Si, the old alley with the shops selling clothes. We explored the stairs and it led us to some old wooden houses. It felt like a memory from Salzburg (with the stairs) + Taiwan (of the houses). I was carrying Bev on my back, she is heavy but I am thinking to myself how much longer can I carry her like this. I loved it. 

We rested at Heh Cafe for cakes, pasta and drinks. They have a nice view of the Kek Lok Si as the lights slowly turned on as the sun started to set. Their cakes were a-ma-zing~~~ Blueberry cheese cake and chocolate cake were my top favourite.  

Day 3 CNY, we gathered at 小姑 home. They cooked and added a few more family dishes; chinese sausage rice and asam prawn. 

HuiYing and I visited SL's home. I also dropped by at HY's house uninvited; had a good chat with uncle and aunty. I've always dropped by whenever I was at Dad's office, 1 minutes walk away. Such lovely families and homes.

Every year 3rd day CNY, we have a Georgian reunion dinner. It has been awhile since I came back for this night. We gathered at Flame Restaurant at Air Itam (on the roof of DeView Hotel). It was a nice dinner location overlooking Kek Lok Si - although a little jam going in during CNY. With glass view of the surrounding, the night view of Air Itam was different. I had stayed more than 15 years at Air Itam but I never got this view before; a nice local little town, mostly kampung vibe but lively. Definitely had a good rush of memories from the past when we go around the town for chores, to Dad's office, Sunshine Farlim for dim sum, night market, Kek Lok Si, climbling the hill behind us. 

The Flame Restaurant had a nice presentation for dinner. There were dry ice & fire presentation and band singing. After a good catch-up and laugh with the girls, we took some photos together with Kek Lok Si as the background. To end the nice dinner, there was a fireworks from the neighbourhood nearby. It was a good choice of location for CNY and worth the money for the food and night view of well-lit Kek Lok Si (trick is not to park at the hotel but slightly further away so that we saved time from the jam).