Sunday, May 25, 2008

Celebrating with the Tans





We were in Melbourne just recently to celebrate with Justin and Mary their 20th Wedding Anniversary. The celebration began at their home with a beautiful mass where Mary & Justin renewed their marriage vows. All the 5 older children had a part to play in the mass - doing readings and sharing. I especially enjoyed the music accompaniment provided by the violion, piano and guitar trio. After mass, the Tan children sang "Stand by me", which I thought was very appropriate for the occasion. No Singaporean celebration would be complete without food & gambling so we dug into a sumptuous Chinese dinner at a restaurant closeby and then ended the night with Poker. It was fun to catch up with not just the Tans but also Cath and Tony's family as well as get acquainted with June and Henry.

We were totally pampered by the Tans the whole 10 days we were there. No cooking for me - yeah! No nagging the kids - they hardly fought because they had other distractions. Ming & Tim hit it off right away, and Erica had Isabel, Connie and Cassie to dote on her. Alphonsus and Ian got Mervin pretty hooked on poker. Justin has trained his kids well, actually ALL his kids play poker including Ming!I'm sure Ren won't be far away. I didn't have to decide what to eat and where to go - Mary had it all planned and under control.

We spent a wonderful weekend at Inverloch with the Tans and the Chongs, and whilst we were there, headed to Philips Island to see the fairy penguins. The children loved it!

We spent a day at the Weribee Open Range Zoo and saw some wild cats way up close.

Had tea at a pretty and quaint tea house called Mrs Marples at Sassafras and then caught the Puffing Billy.

On our final night there, we had an awesome Teppanyaki dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

I musn't forget to mention that we did a fair bit of shopping. Shopping in Melbourne was magnificent compared to Auckland so we got a bit carried away. You will soon see (in summer) the 27kg Kathmandu 6-man tent we brought home all the way from Melbourne because it was clearing at 75% discount off the normal price!