Countdown…

My Singapore friends spent the whole afternoon at the shopping complex…and while they were there, they did go and eat some of Colonel Sanders’ fried chicken – somehow or other, they thought ours were nicer. Perhaps that was because they were hungry since we did not really have a proper lunch earlier or unlike old folks like me, they are more into this kind of fast food franchise stuff. When evening came, they went to the pasar malam (night market) again and ate some more…including the durians there and they did pick up a few items before heading back to the hotel on their own.

It was New Year’s Eve so I stayed home to have dinner with my girl and the mum, just a simple one as we did not plan to whip up anything fancy. The most important thing was that we got to sit down and eat together to say goodbye to the old year and ring in the new.

Later, past 9.00 p.m., I went to get my friends from the hotel and took them to the Sibu Town Square for the New Year Countdown bash…

There were not many people around…

…but there were performances on the stage…

– people singing and dancing and since it was still early, we decided to go some place else first.

I took them to this old school restaurant (that I’ve blogged about here and also here) for the Foochow-style Sibu sio bee…

…and the Foochow fried noodles…

– the ones here are definitely nicer than what they had the night before and to go with these, we also ordered another plate of fried midin (wild jungle fern)…

If I’m not mistaken, that supper for the five of us cost RM26.00 or SGD10.00 only.

Unfortunately, when we headed back to the town centre, there was a massive traffic jam with all the cars heading in the same direction. In the end, I decided to make a detour and took them back to their hotel…to enjoy the fireworks and firecrackers all around the vicinity when the clock struck midnight (and even before) and that was one thing that delighted them very much – everyone was into it in the confines of their own homes, not just the official one in the city square or wherever, and that was something they would never get to see in their very disciplined island republic…(to be continued)

P.S.:
Thank you so much to my cousin in Perth, Australia for the very pretty Christmas card that you sent me, Hallmark no less…

Talk about our extremely sluggish postal service via snail mail, this only reached me a couple of days ago but it’s no matter. As they say, it’s the thought that counts. Hope you and your loved ones Down Under had a delightful Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Cheers!!!