Little Luke "Skywalker"

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Another Evening to Remember...

Since everyone has already had their post-event coverage up, I could not delay this further...

I had informed the Milwaukee Steakhouse people to book a section of the restaurant for the bloggers' gathering a day before. They have agreed to reserve some tables on the cooling part of the restaurant for me (as the weather is too hot to my liking). J and I got Little Skywalker dressed up in his "Wong Fei Hung" costume which we managed to pick up two days before CNY.

I had tried to call that very potential mummy before I left the house (as I intended to offer her a ride), but failed to reach her. Half way to the restaurant, I received a call from Loc Kee. He asked me to pick up Milly as he is still stucked in Subang area. His call was just in time as I was about to reach the junction to Milly's place. I managed to find the her residence but waited more than 15 minutes for her to get ready.

We reached the gathering venue at 6.15pm (30 minutes later than I planned) and met up with the early arrivals, namely Jason, Mr Kiasi, Kampung Kai, Leecs and Shiaulin's family, Twinsmom's family and Jefferene's family. Except for Jason and Twinsmom, the rest of the guests were new faces to us. After a brief introduction, we started ordering our food since everyone else had already done so (Leecs's family were already half way eating their dinner).

I must say it's fun to meet up with ~~strangers~~ new people, especially toddlers. Xuan was dressed up like a small little adult with a formal shirt and pants, not forgetting a pair of boots! I did not recognize Jefferene and little Yee Ching at first, but her hubby's face looks familiar to me as I have seen him on some video clip before. It was not until later that Jefferene introduced herself that I finally realised that she was the lady that I was talking to on the phone for the past few weeks (I was helping her to get her mum into dialysis treatment, read her blog for more info).

Zara's mama (and family), 1+2mom (and family) and Loc Kee (and family) came an hour later to join us. It is understandable as some of us have already started work on that day. Since we have met them before in the previous gathering, it's more like catching up with old friends this time. Little Skywalker was more excited to meet up with Zara, Carter, Carol, Carrie and his girlfriend Sweet Sweet once again! Although he has yet to reach the stage where he will mingle around with other kids, but he seems very happy to be around his peers!

The atmosphere throughout the meet-up was a cheerful and busy one. You can see children running about with their parents chasing from behind. Some will be walking up to others for some chit chat and wishing them Happy CNY. As Kampung Kai put it, photo snapping sessions is the trademark activity of a bloggers' gathering. The "canon among the gun fire" was Zara's mama's new SLR!

As for our Little Skywalker, he was his active and sociable self as usual. He had no problems talking, playing, hugging and kissing total strangers. His kung-fu costume was one of the highlights of the evening. Since we are regular customers of the restaurant, the staff working are very familiar with our son. He knows his way throughout the restaurant. He knows where the fish pond is. He knows where the baby sharks' aquarium is. He even knows where the two children coin-rides are located.

Surprisingly, he loves the coin-rides more than usual. He normally asked to come down whenever we tried to put coins in it. But he sat for four full rides (one as a co-passenger behind his girlfriend Sweet Sweet) before we managed to convince him to get off. The rest of the children were attracted to the coin-rides as well. Since there were only two machines standing in front of the restaurant, everyone had to wait for their turn. I guess the restaurant should install more of such machines in the future to prevent children fighting at their door step.

After our dinner, chit-chat and photo session, everyone started to say their goodbyes and headed home around 9pm. Oops, I almost forgot about some presents that Little Skywalker received from his friends (or rather their parents). Leecs and Shiaulin gave Little Skywalker a set of books + CD comprising of children songs. Jefferene gave him a beautiful squarish shirt (which he asked to put on immediately as soon as he saw it). Milly also gave him (and all the other toddlers) a packet of nicely wrapped sweets.

On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank everyone for taking the time out of their busy CNY schedule to attend the gathering and for your generous gifts to Little Skywalker. To all those who could not make it this time, we hope to see you guys next time. Hopefully we will have more of such gatherings or meet-ups in the future.

You can also read more post-event here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 2/07/2006 10:21:00 AM :: and invited 15 Blah(s):