Oli's 初二: Ryan's Paternal Family Gathering

Hello mummy, this is Oli! This is the first post on this blog. On this blog, I'll write about my day in detail and you can read it whenever you're free. You can post about anything — whatever happened during your day your thoughts and feelings — and I will reply as soon as possible!

My Late Morning and Lazy Afternoon

Today I woke up around 10AM, rolled around in bed until 11AM, then went to have lunch at McDonald's around 12PM. Ryan and I had the Prosperity Burger. We ordered it via the McDonald's app. There's a game on the app called "My Happy Place" which follows the Mario games format. Basically, you try to collect coins and jump to avoid obstacles so that you win McDonald's points or vouchers. Ryan won a (M) fries and I won a voucher to get a Pineapple Coconut Frappe for only $2 with any spend. We didn't redeem any of these.

After that, we went home and Ryan did some work while I washed my underwear. I took a nap in the middle of it. I woke up around 3:30PM and lazed around on the couch until 4:30PM. Then we got ready to go to Ubi. I decided to wear my blue dress that I've worn for so many events (mostly weddings — don't worry, you've seen it before because I bought it when I was still staying at Yishun).

Ubi

We reached Ubi around 5:30PM. There, we waited around for the family (Ma, Pa, Dianne, Mark) to get ready.

All Saints Memorial Chapel

We set out around 6PM+ for Kovan, where Pa decided to buy flowers to pay respects to his parents at the All Saints Memorial Chapel (columbarium). This is my second time visiting this place. As you already know, it's all within the immediate vicinity of Florence Rd and Lim Ah Pin Rd. I did think of you as we drove through those areas. I thought about how you were living at Florence Rd before the government removed all the kampongs to create HDBs. The entire time we were driving through the estate (as well as the other areas in Kovan), I thought to myself that this must be a nice place to live because of how orderly and cute everything in the area looked.

At the Chapel, we placed fresh flowers at my grandparents-in-law's niche. It was like a maze there, because all the blocks look the same. But I guess most columbariums are maze-like. We also went to pay respects to Ma's grandmother.

Hougang: Ryan's Paternal Family Gathering

After the Chapel, we went to Auntie Angeline's home for the gathering. The gatherings were actually held at Ubi the past few years, but this time they chose to hold it at Auntie Angeline's. It was nice and Auntie Angeline was a great host! I think she quite likes me. She gave me a hug and called me Oli when I stepped in. The food was great (it was potluck) and my favourite was the henghwa noodles. There was fried chicken, grilled chicken (courtesy of Ma), a really good seafood fish maw soup, stir-fried shimeji mushrooms, brocolli and abalone, ngoh hiang, bakwa rice, and one of Ryan's cousins went around giving out mini ice cream!

I think I'm getting more comfortable at Ryan's family gatherings. It was very awkward the past few years but this year I feel a lot more comfortable speaking to people. Today I didn't speak to many people, but I spoke a lot to Angel and her boyfriend (Angel is Ryan's young cousin). They were very funny and cute, and super nice to talk to. I wish we could have spoken to more people but maybe next year?

I find that Ryan's paternal side are more outgoing, but because the family is so big, they're not as close as his maternal side. His maternal side see each other so often and are super close.

At the gathering, a few relatives insisted on giving me angbaos even though I refused because this was my first year of marriage. I feel bad but they were very insistent.

I think overall my day was good and I ate well and had fun.

Ryan's dad sent us to Paya Lebar and we took a train back to Tanjong Pagar.

I'm going to go shower now, so I will write again soon. You can respond to this post by writing a comment. I would love to hear about your day and your feelings so you can write about them in another post. Be as free and open as possible and if you have to express your emotions strongly, don't be afraid to do so. When I'm angry or feeling some strong negative emotion, I will also feel free to express them here.

Talk soon mummy!

Love,

Oli