22 December 2023

Christmas greeting,

Festive season is fast approaching to herald another Christmas and 2024! How time flies!

It was not long ago that we share our family news of 2022 in our last Xmas letter in December 2021.

Below is some family news to share with you:

Christmas 2022 saw us having a combined family reunion (our family and Monica’s family) dinner at
Wei Jiat and Monica’s home as in the photo below. We enjoyed a very scrumptious dinner hosted
by Monica and Wei Jiat. Parents in laws were requested to only cook a dish. We thoroughly en-
joyed the festive foods and catching up with family news. Aria delighted us with her dancing and
invited us to join her.

After Christmas, we stayed in Auckland for a week, during which , we had quality family time : pic-
nic at the beach, shopping, lunches as well as Wei Yen’s birthday dinner. We also managed to catch
up with friends (Lucy and Philip) in Auckland and Jane Dawson and her family members Warkworth.
What an eventful but relaxing holiday!
1st Jan 2023---returned to Hamilton. We were busy again to prepare for our visitors- Our Napier
friends- SooK Hua and Nanyang and their immediate family members from Sydney: Kai Lin, Matt and
their two preschoolers, Xia Lin and Joshua were on their way to Auckland, stopping at our place for
dinner. Great catching up with family news.

5th Jan —we and Wei Yen left for Wellington. 2023 trip to Wellington had not been kind to both of
us. Just before we left Hamilton, Fee Ching’s left eye was stung by an unknown insect which she
thought was a mosquito bite and did not pay too much attention to it except applied some insect
bite cream. By the time we reached Ohakune (our first leg of our journey for 2 days), the affected
area had flared up and landed up having a half closed very swollen eye. Because of the festive sea-
son, the local GPs were on leave and the only available medical consultation were at Wanganui Hos-
pital with a 24/7 private medical clinic attached to it. It took us 1.33 hours to reach the destination
but the waiting time was about 6 hours before I could see a doctor. Thank goodness the doctor pre-
scribed the right treatment but could not identify the insect that caused the affected area!

Next stop was Eketahuna. It was heavy drizzling at the time, Con slipped and fell on the wet wooden
porch while carrying the chilly bin full of foods! Thank goodness there was no concussion but did
have a big swollen purplish black bruise on the left eye and cheek. We spend our 48th wedding anni-
versary quietly recovering from our respective swollen eyes and cheek in the Eketahuna airbnb!

Once in Wellington, Con went for X-ray and was cleared by the GP that there was no damage on the
bruised area. Con did not have hairline fracture on his fall. What a relief!

While we were in Wellington, Wei Yen thoroughly enjoyed all the home cook meals prepared by Fee
-ching. Con assumed the role of a gardener to tidy the section and helping Wei Yen with his server. It
was a good break from home, spending quality time with Wei Yen and catching up with his friends.

Our return to Hamilton saw us spending two nights at our old friends’ Sook Hua and Nanyang’ in
Napier where we had great time , good foods and fun.

Early April, chestnut picking at a private property. The owner has many chestnut trees on his section
but he does not eat the chestnuts. We were more than delighted with the offer the nuts and man-
aged to pick 40 kgs.! The best chestnuts we have ever tasted in New Zealand.

The Easter period saw us busy entertaining our

Singaporean friends, Bee Ling and Alan as well
as Sook Hua. Bee Leng and Alan’s mission in
Hamilton was to support their Singapore friends
who are breast Cancer survivors. They were
participating at the 2023 International Dragon
Boating Paddling event for cancer survivors at
the Karapiro River in Cambridge. The big event
certainly saw an influx of a few thousands over-
seas visitors in Hamilton and other Waikato ar-
eas, creating businesses in the hospitality sec-
tor. Bee Leng and Alan spoilt us with a break-
fast, lunch and dinner during their stay with us. All our visitors enjoyed our fejoes and passion fruits
as well as chestnuts.

12/8/23- Aria’s 3rd birthday celebration. She missed her 1st and 2nd birthday celebration as was inter-
rupted by Covid19. It was held at the Herne Bay Petanque Club. There was a lot of planned fun activi-
ties with delicious party foods for both children and adults.

Wei Yen flew to Auckland for this occasion. We stayed in Auckland for a few days and Wei Yen flew
back to Wellington after a short stay in Hamilton. He could not travel with us as he had to get back to
work due to his involvement in a project that needed his full attention.

A few days later saw us driving Wellington via Wanganui (2 nights) and Palmerston North (1 night).
As usual, our stay in Wellington saw Wei Yen enjoying Fee-Ching’s home cook meals. Con helped
cleared the section and catching up with Wei yen’s friends.

Again, our trip back to Hamilton saw us visiting Sook Hua and Nanyang in Napier. Sook Hua drove us
round the farm areas and the polytechnic grounds to see the devastation caused by the Gabriel
storm. It was a devastating sight to see the huge damage caused by the cyclone.

23rd October Labour Day –we together with Wei Jiat, Monica and Aria attended
our family friend , Edward Dawson’s 80tth Birthday held at the Manurewa Bo-
tanical Garden. There was so much catching up with the Dawson and Maung-
Maung families.

November saw Aria enrolled at a kindergarten (2 days per week). Prior to that
she was also enrolled to attend a gym once a week.

9th December – we were involved at the Summer Market Day organized by Wai-
kato Chinese Association, at our Hall (10am to 2pm). We had a stall mainly of
book, and magazines as well as some other items.
On the same day at 3pm, we were busy preparing our end
of year Christmas BBQ gathering at the Hall . We had a few
enjoyable fun activities and a delicious BBQ meal enjoyed
by all attended. A stall holder was affected with Covid19 at
the Market day and a few were eventually infected. Unfor-
tunately Fee Ching was one of the affected statistics. She
was tested positive a few days later followed by Con. Our
home became isolated, notifying friends about our isolation
strategy. At the time of writing, both of us are recovering
very well with no severe reactions.

Our contact with Aria has been a

regular monthly visit comprising of a
few days – helping Wei Jiat to care
for Aria when he is working at home.
We observe that Aria’s growth and
development have progressed by
leaps and bounds. She is bi-lingual –
Cantonese and English. It has always
been joyful to spend quality time
with Aria and seeing her progressing
well in her development. We also
get to see her on portal TV – Con
said that “ Facebook Portal TV is a
small computer with a camera us-
ing TV as a display monitor. Messen-
ger is part of the bundled apps that
anyone wishes to be part of the video session just has to stay in
front of the camera. This nicely avoids the screeching high pitch
noise when two devices are in close proximity. Before FB Portal
TV when we were both using cell phones for a common video session, we have to be in different
rooms to avoid the annoying cross talk!” Technology has certainly helped us to have weekly social
interaction with Aria .
Wei Yen continues to work with Datacom . He and a few colleagues have been seconded to NZ Cus-
tom Service about 2 years ago and he continues to work as the senior platform engineer (IT) and
enjoy this challenging role in that area of work.

Wei Jiat too continues his managerial role in the Joint Border Analytics section and also enjoying
this area of work. Monica continues to work as a piano teacher at Takapuna College and King’s Col-
lege , teaching piano at home as well as a piano accompanist and sometimes performs at concerts
in Auckland and out of town.

We continue to enjoy our retirement- Fee Ching continues her committee work at our Chinese As-
sociation. Con also provide volunteer IT support for elderly friends.

August saw us enjoying being members of the Golden Age Society and attending plaza dancing,
singing, Tai Chi, baduanjin (a form of healthy exercises ) and socializing. Age ranges from 40s to 90
years. We also enjoy being members of the NZ China Friendship Society (Hamilton Branch).

We are busy around the house—doing little projects, reading, trying new recipes and socializing

On 24 December we will go up to Auckland to have a family Christmas dinner at Wei Jiat and
Monica’s home. Monica’s parents and her brother and Wei Yen will join us as well.

We have plans to travel overseas again. Our last international travel was in 2018. Covid 19 situation
did not allow us to go overseas.. Our tentative plan is to go back to Malaysia and Singapore to visit
families and friends end of April or early May 2024.

Apart from being affected by Convid 19 recently, we have been keeping good general health.

We believe you are just as busy as we do; keeping and staying healthy and enjoy in whatever you
are undertaking.

Here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy and Safe New Year!

Best regards,

Con and Fee-Ching