Coming off from a wonderful 7 days last week, I had another delightful week of events. It was filled with family and friends meet-ups while getting to know new people. I am indeed blessed with opportunities to gain happiness all the time, especially now, around my birthday period.
This week started on 25 Jun, Sunday when my older son finally returned home after completing his 3 years of uni in the UK. I prepared a big feast of KBBQ and Korean army stew at home as we waited for him to arrive home from the evening. It was good to have the whole family together again and this was the longest time he has been away from home (9 months).
On Mon, I had a JB day trip planned with 2 friends. The one with the most JB experience offered to drive us here. We met early at 7 am to avoid the causeway jam. It was a full day of activities with a local breakfast (Hoe Kee @ Bukit Indah) before heading to the driving range at Forrest City to hit a few golf balls. Then it was a Zhichar lunch at Chua Kee before having an amazingly thorough 30-minute car wash for MYR 20.
Finally, we went to check out the newest mall in JB called Southkey which was located in Mid Valley. We did some shopping and had a relaxing foot reflexology session before making our way back home by 5 pm. The strength of the SGD against MYR (1 to 3.42) made everything look much more affordable and even cheap at times. A highly productive 10 hours, half-day offsite day trip!
The highlight on Tue was a dinner with a newfound friend I met at the gym. I had been exchanging small talk with this gentleman for months whenever I see him during my workout. Salvatore is the owner of a well-known chain of Italian restaurants that made history in S’pore. He introduced the concept of freshly made pasta as a highly accessible form of Italian cooking when it was only offered in high-end hotels in the late 1980s.
My wife and I had a pleasant dinner with him as we got to know him better over lots of food and great Italian reds at his restaurant. He was the ever-gracious host and greeted all customers like old friends. His story is very inspiring, from being a Navy diver to working at oil rigs in Brunei before settling down in S’pore with his new wife to pivot to a successful F&B business. He even expanded to China at one time. Always cheerful and hitting 70 soon, he is an inspiration all of us should follow, to work hard at what we believe in.
Wed was a family day as we finally had an opportunity to have a formal dinner to celebrate our belated birthdays (younger son and me – the same day on 20 Jun) together. We had decided to postpone this in order to wait for our older son to return from the UK. It was at a nice fusion Japanese Izakaya place called GOHO which my wife had booked.
The next day was a public holiday (Hari Raya). It was a perfect day for the 4 of us to work out together as a family at the gym in the late morning before tucking into a sumptuous Tian Tian chicken rice lunch. Dinner was a seafood meal at Sunset Way with the extended family of my parents/sister-in-law. We headed back home for more drinks and a birthday cake for dessert.
01 Jul, Sat: Time flies by fast and July has arrived. We participated in a neighbourhood get-together street food party on Sat under lovely evening weather. The organizers had also invited our local MP to give a speech. He provided an interesting update on the future plans of our estate.
It has been a lovely week of bonding and gatherings that warm the cockles of my heart. There is so much to be thankful for. The enriching memories that will forever be remembered. Many small feelings of happiness are always better than one infrequent big happiness. They last longer and the warm afterglow stays. I count my blessings every day 🙂
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