I turned 24 not too long ago (the day in question falls on a certain public holiday in Malaysia 
and my awesome parents decided to organise a cosy birthday celebration with some family and friends!
This is going to be a photo-heavy post as one of my best mates, Kean Ho took many great photos with his DSLR! Paired with my Olympus and some great shots from Bernard’s Samsung S3, I happily present you one of my longest Trigger-Happy posts yet! Also more intimate as I reveal a thing or two about my family!
The venue? A gorgeous Bungalow in the depths of Fraser’s Hill:
We arrived in the afternoon on the 15th of September which happens to be Dad’s birthday and Paul’s* sister T and F joined us soon after! Feeling peckish, we trudged a little way downhill for some Banana Fritters, or Pisang Goreng as we locals call it.
Here’s the stall where we bought a huge bag of Pisang Goreng with two combs of Pisang Raja (king of bananas when translated literally)
Us happily munching on freshly fried Pisang Goreng!
The rest of Paul’s* family members then joined us a little later and we had a bit of fun playing with baby Edward, Paul’s* other sister’s baby boy!
Having fun on the seesaw with Edward, Z, Paul* on one end, B the daddy on the other and Edward’s grandmama looking on adoringly in the background!
Now who says seesaws are only for kids?
Watching Dad and Paul’s* Dad playing on the seesaw was pretty much the highlight of the trip as all of us watching from the distance broke out into guffaws of laughter. Much credit goes to Kean Ho who rushed to take this paparazzi-esque shot of the two men. They immediately got up in embarrassment when they realised they were being watched. =D
Then there’s Mummy on the swing, proving my parents are very much young at heart:
The look on Mum’s face immortalised in this shot? Priceless.
The next day, Mum decided to keep us ‘kids’ quiet with some Paint-it-Yourself kits. For once in my life, I could paint! Never an artistic person, I had help from my artsy fartsy Dad when it came to Art projects for school.. During exams, I even had help from a creative friend who would sneakily help me put in strokes of paint here and there, camouflaging the ugliness in my artwork.
+___+
So the four big kids: Paul*, T, F and I sat down first thing in the morning and started painting!
Numbers are placed on the canvas so all you need to do is paint according to the numbers stated. Easy! =D If I can do this, everyone can!
As the weather was lovely, Mum then shoo-ed us out of the home and asked us to rent some bicycles and cycle about. The men – B and F were extremely gung ho about it and pedalled with great ease whereas T and I huffed and puffed behind. Paul* tagged along behind us girls as he was worried we’d get left behind. The two gung ho men constantly stopped and made U-turns as we girls were simply too….. delicate to cycle as quickly as them boys! I admit I am most unfit and have no stamina.
Us cyclists at the town centre where we rented our bikes!
The gung ho boys:
The bike pusher a.k.a me:
T and I!
Lunch came and went and it was time for tea! Here’s a rare photo of me posing with a peace sign for your viewing pleasure:
Mummy painstakingly made many a bite-sized delicacy for all us to much on. I have the best Mummy in the world. Something rather unsavoury struck us the day before we left for Fraser’s Hill in which we nearly cancelled this getaway but Mum decided to carry on with this trip as she didn’t want to let everyone down. <3 Best parents in the world, I have!
Homemade Madeleines and Cream Puffs with The Loaf’s Chocolate Croissants and Cranberry Cheese erm.. bread?
Now that we are talking about food, allow me to introduce you to a smashingly delicious yet simple dessert: Sago Pudding
After carefully undoing the ribbon, this greeted me:
My first item from Coach! A lovely clutch which doubles up as a purse. Am incredibly touched by their generous gesture. <3 Thank you!
T and F then had to leave us after tea as F’s birthday comes up on the following day so Mum got some empty containers for them to bring downhill. A candid moment with them and the two Mummies here:
No, that’s not where we stayed.
Baby Edward was feverish so he, Auntie and Z decided to head back to the bungalow whereas the rest of us conquered the Hemmant Trail:
Shot taken by Kean Ho. The designated photographer of the trip. Here’s another one, which is my personal favourite:
Here’s my take on trying to be creative, taking a shot of Kean Ho and Dad.
We came home to a certain someone peeking out at us from the window!
And one with Paul and I. =)
Before we knew it, it was dinner time! All of our meals sans high tea were prepared by Annie. =)
Whereas the rest of us just posed. All these following photos were shot with Kean Ho’s amazing camera as I didn’t know how to fiddle about with my camera’s settings to take night shots! Mum and bro were posing and I just had to photobomb their shot!
Mummy playing with her god-grandchild – Aini and her Mum who joined us for an evening of fun!
What’s a family get-together without one for the album?
And one with the petite Aini who didn’t look too pleased to be photographed. Oops!
Z, B, Edward and Auntie!
If you have managed to read this far, congratulations and thank you very much for being such a loyal reader! <3 In conjunction with my birthday celebration and this lengthy post, I have decided to giveaway one MUA Undressed Palette and a Bourjois Effet 3D Lipgloss in the shade 52 (I think, I forgot to photograph the shade number and I'm currently away from home!) to one lucky reader!
To win, all you need to do is follow me on GFC / Bloglovin’ / E-mail and tell me what is it you love about my blog and what would you like me to feature more in the future! This giveaway will end on the 7th of October at 11.59pm Malaysian time. You can tweet about this giveaway if you like but it isn’t compulsory!
To round up this post, the giveaway is international but do remember to read the rules before entering!
Thank you all for being such lovely readers and for bearing with me while I randomly go on long, unexplained nor announced absences but I will be back soon! <3
. But yes. I have my Creme de La Mer lip balm with me because it doesn’t come in a tube (which I will then need to squeeze into a small clear plastic bag together with my skincare essentials) and this works on both my lips and cuticles / hands! Perhaps it’s due to my frequent toilet visits (I need to do them because I get really fidgety when sitting in a plane for too long) and the hand wash seems extra drying but this lip balm keeps both my lips and hands in check. 
