Whilst the professional photographers were busy taking photos of the bride and groom, we, the family were busy getting in their way trying to capture shots of ourselves!!! So, here is a collection of photos of, mainly, not the bride and the groom.

The newly weds....oh.... this just in...... they are the parents of the bride.

Meet the beautiful shanghai princess. Meet the "tai kam cheh". The tea ceremony.

There is a problem with having too many cameras, people dont know where to look......

Don't mess with the Chua sisters!!!! or you will answer to us. Drink up little one. Ah.... the beautiful flower girl and handsome boy. Wishing all of you the best. The group shot - although we are missing the bride and the groom.

I recently got Kendall a camera that can be used underwater for his birthday, the Panasonic Lumix TS3. Well, actually it is as much for me as it is for him, hahahahha, but don't tell him that. We are hoping to return to Krabi, and maybe take some underwater pictures. 

Here are the first few shots, as is, from the camera (with only cropping applied to some) of the making of a Christmas Pudding.

There was a special request for more cherries and citrus peel and less sultanas and raisins.

Butter and drastically reduced brown sugar.

The flour, with special "Wella" weighing scale.

Under wraps now and ready for 3 and half hours of steaming!

Ah, the little slice of Christmas that came early this year. I am told it tastes nice, I don't eat Christmas pudding myself. The original recipe is from here, although mine was quite heavily adapted to individual tastes.

Have not tried the camera in water yet. Still tentative, hahaha somehow it feels so unnatural to put a camera into water. Not to mention that the instructions manual came with an endless lists of what not to do !!!!!

I remember from school that Seremban is a valley (there is every possiblity that I am remembering wrongly) , so that stands to reason that there would be hills around it. Although I have never thought of Seremban as being surrounded by hills. Driving back from KL one day, dad asked if we would like to "climb" that hill, pointing to one that is beside the KL-Seremban highway, where at the foot of it is Bukit Kepayang. He and his hash buddies go often.

So, up we went the following day. There are 3 ways to go up. one is a paved road, an easy climb route and a challenging one. We took the challenging one,  the climb took only about 20 minutes, although it was quite steep at some places and we did work up quite a sweat. We were rewarded with some pretty interesting views. I don't think I have looked down on Seremban before, there is something amazing about being up high. The photos above were towards Seremban 2 area (westwards I guess, since that is the setting sun) This one is looking the otherway (let us say, eastwards), towards Taman Permai, Bukit Kaya and beyond. From the photos, it does look like there are hills on the peripherals, so maybe I did pay attention at school after all. At the top of the hill stands two Hindu temples. A statue of a deity behind a grilled frame. What look like colourful cloths draped around a tree. Some prayers at the other temple.

It was close to being dark when we left, and we walked down the paved road. The walk down  took longer than the climb up.

 

We just got back from Krabi, Thailand and I got such a tan!!! Now, that may sound like I am bragging, but being asian, we don't like tans. Krabi turned out to be so pretty that even getting really tanned was worth it.  

Ah such crystal clear blue green waters. I thought they only existed on brochures and are exclusively for the rich and famous. Krabi was a very pleasant surprise indeed. Not that I didn't know there would be beaches, I had not realised that such pristine waters still existed for normal people.  Well, I may have mislead you a little there. The photo above is at a beach where you can only get to by boat. And the one below is the beach where our hotel was. hehehehehehe, yes, stark difference!

We stayed at the little town of Ao Namao, where, I think the most significant shop was their 7/11. It has a jetty which was very convenient to catch long tail boat rides to the beautiful beaches. 

Above and below are some long tail boats moored near the jetty which was about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Depending on the tides, you may need to get a little bit wet wading out to it or from it.

Breakfast at the hotel, where you can see the jetty and boats behind us. 

We joined a tour which took us island hopping. First stop was Pranang Cave Beach, which was on the mainland but only accessible by boat. The tour got us there quite early, at about 9.30am, before the hordes of tourists had arrived. We found out the next day, when we visited again, that it is a very busy beach later in the day.
Lots of people go to Krabi for rock climbing, Kendall and I could only watch in awe. 

This is me walking from one island to the other. The tour guide said that there are 10 days (5 days before and 5 days after the full moon)  in a month where the water is just shallow enough you can walk between the islands of Kai (Chicken) and Tub. We were there on the 6th day before the full moon, which meant the water would be a deeper but he reckoned we would be fine. 

And here is a view of the throngs of people there walking between the islands.

My feet in the clear waters.

Me with long sleeves, hat, and tons of sunscreen, taking the photos of my feet, like the one above. 

Would you believe it that there were fish swimming around me!!!! It was simply amazing. I only had to be ankle deep in the water and there were fish swimming around me. They were like ikan bilis. But once I was about waist deep, they get bigger and much more colourful.

This was at Ao Nang beach, a very touristy area.

A Bunga Raya (hibiscus) at the hotel. 

To sum it up, it was a tropical paradise. If you have not been, GO. If you have, GO AGAIN. Lastly, don't forget your sunscreen.

Melaka was hot hot hot!!!!!!  It was almost unbearable in the afternoon, so we really only left the hotel close to sunset. Which works out well, if you want to take photos - less crowd and better light. If only there wasn't a small fire burning some leaves and grass nearby.....(maybe just sour grapes, coz none of the photos turned out great).

Next to the famous St Francis Xavier statue, had to wait a while for a picture alone with him.

A view from where the statue stands.

From inside the St. Paul's church.

At the roundabout by the Stadhyus building, trishaws, lit up like christmas trees!

The clock tower, Christ Church and well - the porch of the Stadhyus.

Armed with a tripod we went walking around the old town, in the night. There were some rather well maintained old buildings.

One of the old building.

This is looking up at breakfast at one of the many courtyards at Hotel Puri. 

It was an enjoyable short trip, some interesting places to visit & photograph and food was pretty good. If there is one thing I would advise anyone visiting Melaka, it would be - dont forget your sunscreen.