Chinese New Year

2nd Part of Chinese New Year

3rd day-28 Jan

Went back to my parents’ hometown at Sri Menanti, Negeri Sembilan. To be more spesific, we visit my maternal grandma. Both my parents come from the same place. But my paternal grandma moved out from there after my grandpa passed away. So whenever I balik kampung, I'm visiting my maternal grandma. Hehe. Before reaching there, we stopped by at Senawang, to 1 of my relative’s place. We had some home made roti canai there. After staying for about 1++ hours, we continued our journey back to Sri Menanti. Arrived at my grandma's place around 12.30 noon. Waited for my 2nd aunt and family to reach home to have lunch with them. They reached around 1.30pm....and I played with my cousin brothers. Hey, it's been a while since the last time I met them, of course I wanna 'bully' and play with them!! Hehehe...and after lunch and playing with my cousins, I went to zZzzzz....tired coz waking up early...slept late last night, coz I watched series "Miss No Good".(If not mistaken, this is the English title for "不良笑花".) Woke up around 4.30pm. 2nd and 3rd uncle came (they lived near grandma's place), and had our dinner at 7pm. Talk about what they've been through, the news-national and international, and other stuff. Around 8++pm, mum's aunt and her family came visit. Crowded, as the aunt came with her 2 children and their family. I HATE CROWD! Upon 'serving' them, I slowly slipped away. Hehehe....but I came back to the crowd some time later. As there was too many relatives, there were groups. 1 group at the dining place, while another at living room, and the other 1 at the front of the shop(my grandma's own a grocery shop). I didnt join anyone of them. Hehe...coz they are the long distance relatives. I barely see them once in a year. So I don't feel the need to hear what they've been up to (I don't care which countries you are staying.) They stayed for about 1++hours. Before leaving, we had a group photo.

4rd day-29 Jan

Woke up late. Help mummy prepare lunch. HELLO. Miss Seldom-Go-Kitchen-To Help now turun padang to help leh. Give some applaudes man! Thank you very much!! Thank you, thank you. First of all, I wanna thanx my mum and dad...Oopps!! Too perasaan man!! :) Prepare pork, prawn, and mushrooms to fry. Actually it's because these things just came out from fridge. So mum was a bit kelam kabut there. Otherwise 2 helpers were more than enough! Finished helping at 1pm, had my lunch and prepare to go home. 2nd aunt went back earlier than us, and I shall miss my cousin brothers again! See you soon ya, lil bros! Reached home at 6pm, as we were stuck in traffic during our way home. Took a bath and watch the Australian Open, Roger Federer vs Andy Roddick. Dang..now I'm real in love with tennis matches! You see, I like tennis this game, but haven't had a chance to watch people play. I always got the news from newspaper, but haven't seen a match before. As my dad installed Astro not long ago, now I got the chance to watch it. I don't care if it's not a real match, (real in the sense that I go to the place and watch them play) as long as I have a chance to watch it from tv, I'm satisfied. Hehe...so, coming home to watch tv programmes especially programmes like Mythbusters, and channels' numbers starts with 55x and 81x (my favourites!) is a MUST for me. Hehe....these are the lil cousin bros that I mentioned before. *BTW, Roger Federer won that match and he will be in the final. Yeah!*

5th day-30 Jan

Hmm...today, like other normal days, did nothing. Helped mum search for her bakery thing-something went missing and I need to search for it. Didnt find it either. Then prepare those biscuits that want to give to my uncle. He will be here tommorow to fetch grandma back to Johor, before sending her to my aunt's house in Singapore. Then I find for my new Jusco's member card. It's been renewed, but I haven't got the card as my mum kept it. After I keep the card in my bag(in my room), I started to look back at my old stuff. Dairies, greeting cards, F1 tickets, CDs, magazines, brithday gifts. I got many things here, as I like to keep things, as a memory. Btw, I used to do things like this. When I'm doing something, and I find other things to do while doing the 1st thing, I'll do the 2nd thing first, only then continue with the 1st thing. Like just now, I supposed to keep the drawers in the living room (while searching for my J-card) clean, but then when I went to keep my card and saw my old stuffs, I can't help myself to look at it. Only after I look at it, I'll be happy to continue doing my work. Hehe....after that, I stamped the receipts that we had collected throughout 2008 for Income tax usage. I love to do these kind of things. Hehe..and I know how much I spent for magazines. Just hope that my mum won't nag at me when she sees it. Mummy always nag at me when I buy magazines and CDs. Hehe..but I like buying these things, but now have reduce buying CDs. I only buy certain artistes' album.

Chinese New Year Deco

Hampers

Home made biscuits

Chinese New Year

First part of Chinese New Year

It's Chinese New Year time, and we are now in the year of Ox. ~Moo~ For me, Chinese New Year is all about food. Eat, eat and eat! Now, I'll let you know why I say so.

Reunion Day-25 January, 2009

Woke up around 10am, after breakfast, help around to prepare food, for prayer. I did not help much, as I got my brother and maid to help out. Hehe...so, I spent my time read newspapers. Gosh, I missed so much about reading newspapers( I rarely read newspaper while I'm studying, mostly got to know news from online newspaper.) At around 1 pm, I had my reunion lunch with my family, including uncles and aunt, except 1st uncle and his family. He 'missed' every year's reunion lunch, as he and his family are preparing reunion dinner for us. Thus, most of the time they'll be absent. But this year is also quite special for us, as my dad's sister and her family will spend their Chinese New Year with us (according to Chinese tradition, daughter who is married should spend the reunion, 1st and 2nd days of Chinese New Year with her in-laws). So I can say that this year's new year is a 'family gathering without absentees'! My simple lunch: green veges, fishes, chickens, pork(2 dishes with it), prawns, salads. Hmm..I think that's my lunch. Gosh, I was so full! After lunch, we got some rest. 'Old people' went to rest, like take a short nap or watched tv programmes, young people had their own activities, like playing mahjong or computer games or watch online movies. But of course, there are some doing vice versa. Hehe...around 4pm, had our tea break. 'English tea'-Lipton tea with biscuits and cake(my mum baked it!). Tea break is a must in my family's 'tradition': afternoon-3-4pm and night-10-11pm, during this big gathering. Otherwise, we won't drink so many times! Then around 5pm, we get ready to go to my 1st uncle's house. We reached there at 7.30pm, and had our dinner. It's a simple dinner, with 4 dishes. After dinner, those who are kaki judis started to play cards. While they were playing, others will gather around to see them play or just watch tv programmes. I prefer the 2nd choice, as I'm kiasu, I hate to lose!! Of course, while playing cards or watch tv, we'll just stuff food into our mouth! :) We left at 11.45pm, and headed home to pray for 'Uncle Chai'-god of fortune. It's a chinese culture. People believe that by doing so, we'll have a good fortune ahead. Of course, we had some tea before we sleep..hehe...*pray hard...pray hard...I want more money!*

1st day of Chinese New Year-26 Jan

Hmmm...woke up at 11am...hehe...slept late last night mah! Actually it's because one of my relatives were here. Otherwise, I don't think I'll woke up so early! Haha...ate some bread as my breakfast, and waited for lunch-again. Haha...while waiting, play with relative's grandchild and hear all of the talkings. Today's lunch is Western+Eastern style. Main course is pasta with bologne sauce and white sauce, and tofu with kuah rojak. After lunch, play with the child again and mahjong. Chinese New Year without mahjong is a bit bored. Hehe....and time passed by so fast while doing these. Sien. Around 3pm, 1st uncle came to meet the relative. And we had tea break again at that time. After that, they chat again, and I continued my mahjong games. Around 5pm, get ready to go to my 2nd uncle's house to have dinner. Reached my uncle's house at 7pm. Had a simple dinner. After dinner, it's play cards and watch tv times! Hehe..I know it sounds a bit bored, but we've done this for many years . This is the way to celebrate Chinese New Year in city. If like the time when I was a kid(aged:1-10), the celebrations at my parents' village were TOTALLY different! I prefer to celebrate in the village, but what can I do? The old place is no longer our's. Before we left at 11.30pm, we had our family photo taken. It's been 2 years since the last big family photo was taken.

2nd day of Chinese New Year-27 Jan

Woke up early, as my aunt and her family were going back to Singapore by bus. Went to the bus station with them. I'll be coming back AGAIN to the bus station at the same time in 5 days time to go to Penang to continue the s*~king and farking uni life....Sien....Will miss my cousin brother and sister again. Actually we only meet once in a year, but if my brothers and I go to Singapore for holiday, we'll meet them again. But it's hard to say. Sometimes we didn't go Singapore, so we'll just have to wait for Chinese New Year to meet them. This is what I hate most. The time we spend for our relatives are real little. The only time we spend with them is only during holidays, specifically, Chinese New Year celebrations. It's even harder for me to meet them, as my uni's life is different from others. My holiday is not necessasy other people's holiday. Sien. Back to the topic, the bus which was scheduled at 9.30am, only arrived at 10am. So late. After they get on to the bus, we headed home. Had my breakfast and watched tennis matches. Suddenly phone rang, and my brother said someone-not sure whether is Mr Yap or Mr Yam is coming. Whoever it is, preparations is needed to welcome them. Prepared some biscuits and drinks. Turn out it's mum's uncle@relative (for me). Listen to their talking while my eyes were glued to the tv-tennis match between Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic. They were here for a while and when they left, I continued with tv-now with Mythbusters' programme. Upon finish watching, I can't help with myself. Next mission: sleeping. ZzZzZZz for nearly 3 hours. See how tired am I!!! hehe...woke up and had some bread to fill my stomach, before continue watching tv. You see, I didn't watch tv for some time. The tv in my house at Penang was broken. I was so sien about it. Missed many programmes. After dinner, went to visit my aunt at Setia Alam, and reached home at 11.30pm. While writing this post, I watched tennis match again, this time is the repeat show between Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro. I missed the live show while I'm visiting my aunt. Hehe...guess I'll stop here for the 1st part. 2nd part will 'arrive' on next few days!

Last but not least, the 2009 Family Photo.

New Year

2009

It's a new year, but is the same old life for me. Nothing change much. Maybe the age is catching up, coz I don't feel like any 'fire' inside me. Especially in some occasions. Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Birthdays etc. The Feeling. Has change. Doesn't have the feeling like I used to be. Everyday is just as normal as it can be. Nothing special. And Time flies by. A year has gone. I've been a(n) university's student for 1 year. Never thought that the first year will passed by so fast. As time flies by, people grow older, become wiser, as we see a lot of things. Not sure why some people just can't be mature like their age. Things change, so do people. Or maybe I should say that the more time we spent with someone, we get to know him/her better, and then only find out that actually he/she is that kind of person. But that's an opinion from a new friend, as they just met not long ago. For those who already knew the person for a period of time, they might say, "I think xxx has change!". Different people, from different perspective, will give a different opinion at the same person. Life. Is. Such. A. Mysterious. Thing. *headache*

---------------------------------------------------------------------------Chinese New Year is around the corner. Reached home from Penang 2 days before the reunion dinner. Help my mum baked the final round of biscuits (enough for this celebration, kot) and clear up some messy spots in my house. That's all I did for the preparation. I didn't need to clean fans or change the curtains or do the decorations or go shopping for the festivals stuff, as my parents and brothers have done it while I'm still busy with my presentation and tutorial works. Feel like I was left out, as I used to do all those things with my family. Sien. But then I can't do anything. Life's like that. I hate it, but obviously I need to cope with it. FULLSTOP. Now all I need to do is wait for my granny to reach here from Johor. She's coming here tomorrow, or should I say, today, as it's already past midnight. And then wait til the big day(reunion day) come! Happy Chinese New Year to all those who celebrate this festival! To Shu Li and Pau Li in Japan, Happy Chinese New Year to both of you too!