Just a day…

We had just a day left to the New Year, New Year’s Eve…and my girl had to go back to her school to attend their staff meeting. We insisted on sending her all the way there and while she was at the meeting, we helped clean her unit at the teacher’s quarters – the mum taking care of her room and I did the outside, including the corridor.

That was really hard work – so much to wipe and clean and sweep and when I was done, I was absolutely exhausted but the place did look a lot cleaner and nicer, I must say. I brought lunch so when she came back, we ate and after a while, we left for home. Of course, we would not want her to be stuck there in the middle of nowhere on New Year’s Eve!

We were way too tired by the time we got home so we did not bother to cook anything. That evening, we went for the sunset service in church and after it ended past 8.00 p.m., we dropped by here…

…for a late dinner.

The decorations are up…

…all ready to welcome the Year of the Rooster…

…and I must say that they have done a really good job…

…and this one especially…

…stole the show. There were quite a lot of people there that night and everybody wanted to have their selfie or wefie taken with that in the background. According to Peter, the boss, he just recycled some old stuff that they had to come out of all the arrangements. Amazing! They are so creative, really!

So what did we have for our dinner that night? Well, seeing how my girl enjoyed their lamb masala (RM19.00, with rice)…

…when we had that sometime ago, I ordered that for her to enjoy instead of our other favourite, their Bangladeshi lamb curry, for a change. This one is a little milder and not as spicy but it is very nice too in its own right.

I was thinking that perhaps I could tapao their mashed potatoes (RM8.00)…

…for her to take to her school to eat and enjoy in the course of the week but it turned out that she was actually thinking of having it all evening! I really know her so well, don’t I? She said it would be best enjoyed there and would not be as nice after keeping it in the fridge and reheating to eat. Theirs is different from any anywhere – I saw Peter’s aunt cooking it, stirring and stirring away till it was done. I don’t know what ingredients go into it but I can detect the pleasant fragrance of fried garlic, if I am not mistaken…and as it was what my girl wanted, of course, I made sure she had it that night.

The mum wanted the green curry (RM16.00, with rice)…

…so we had that as well.

Well, since it was New Year and according to the Chinese tradition, we should have fish and I would have ordered their Payung fish (RM15.00, with rice)…

*Archive photo*

– ikan keli (catfish) in soy sauce with lots of ginger and everything else. My girl enjoyed this a lot but unfortunately, having that is out of the question now. For some reason or other, there is wheat flour in the ingredients for soy sauce (and a lot of other sauces as well) and being on a gluten-free diet, that is something she would need to avoid now.

In the end, we had the otak-otak fish (RM13.00, with rice)…

…instead. We did not order any dessert as we were too full after we had finished everything we ordered.

The total came up to RM56.00 but that was because we had an extra item, the mashed potatoes, instead of our usual 2 mains and a rojak or salad but that was perfectly all right. After all, it was New Year’s Eve, a special occasion…and we had every reason to celebrate the closing of 2016 and the start of a brand new year, 2017, and hopefully it would be a really good one, fingers crossed.