十五暝

今天是元宵节，你吃汤圆了没有？

We had our annual CNY gathering at JM's place some 2 weeks back, a night before he took off to Eindhoven for his exchange programme. We had a very filling steamboat dinner with his family and a rather fulfilling (at least for me lah) gambling and drinking session after. 

#1 Ah Ong, the gambler.

#2 JM, the designer.

#3 ZL, the accountant-to-be.

btw, look at the enormous cards in her hands! 

#4 Boss, the Chemistry/Maths teacher

#5 Drinking game where JM was really unlucky lol

#6 Happy birthday Ah Ong! Congratulations on completing your FYP!

#7 We were kinda high by this time of the night.

#8 See what Kahlua and beer does to Boss...

#9 I hope he's enjoying the cold weather on the other side of the globe now

#10 I got the kitty frame from Taipei for about S$10, which I thought was quite expensive

#11 Nerdy frames ftw!

#12 The lot this time round minus Ah Ong and RL.

After countless rounds of ban luck and si gi, we went on to mahjong. It'll probably only be 6 months later before we can sit down together with JM again so... absolutely no apologies for keeping him up till 7 next morning.

I seem to be quite lucky in mahjong this year, concluding from the past few rounds I've played #pleasedontletmejinxit

Mumsy read the papers last night and there was a snippet stating that it's possible to make eggs stand on 立春, so we tried doing just that after dinner and... tadah!

#13 Number grid courtesy of my 4D-crazy dad; 7859, good stuff must share :p

speaking of which... Mumsy, Dad and YF won some money (3 + 1) for the $10 miliion draw a few nights ago. I must have been out when the god of fortune decide to pay us a visit :( 

Anyway, I just hope that it'll be a great dragon year ahead for everyone! Let's huat together :)

Welcoming the year of the water dragon.

#1 Card with description of yusheng's origins at Dragon Phoenix Restaurant, Novotel. 

This lunar new year is slightly different from the others because it's my year! I can't remember if I was as excited about CNY 12 years ago, but I must've been; it was a dragon year too! Anyway, reunion dinner with the paternal side of my family took place last night at Dragon Phoenix Restaurant at Novotel. The place was so awfully crowded; the restaurant had even rented a ballroom from the hotel to cater to the numerous families gathering for their reunion dinners.

#2 Yusheng - Ready to be tossed

#3 and my very first lohei this year! Let's huat together!

Post reunion dinner, we headed home to finish up with the spring cleaning - I was so glad that we were done when we were done because Ah Hong had been breathing down my our necks all day; she's someone I don't wish to be around on 除夕. And as usual, we spent the rest of the night watching Mediacorp's CNY eve's special programme at home - just to hear what the fengshui master has to say about the luck of the different zodiac animals for the year.

#4 First angbao of the dragon year, from Ah Hong dearest!

Spent another 30 minutes helping Honghong prepare red packets for next day's visiting - and I realized that CNY is a jin 重本 affair!

Woke up only late afternoon today since I hadn't gone to bed till 6 a.m. in the morning. It was grandma's place until evening; I ate way too much new year goodies and we played mahjong - started off by winning a lup sup 自摸五台湖; I was so happy that I squealed and jumped around in joy.

#5 Cheongsam that I'm going to continue wearing even when it's not CNY

#6 Hiao hiao. 

We visited Honghong and Dad's matchmaker friends in the evening and I think they had a good time catching up. I'm probably not giving them enough credit here, but dear auntie and uncle, I hope you will know that I truly am thankful that you brought Mumsy and Dad together about 30 years ago! I will not be here typing this if not for you guys!

I have a crazy amount of assignments to get done so I really shouldn't be spending too much time here so... all you people reading this, have a fantastic Dragon year of good health, love and wealth! Huat huat! :)

#7 Our new 'passenger'.

Bad-Cramps-Day

I thought it'd be a damned good day to do some revision since I haven't done any from the start of the 'long' CNY break, and it would probably have been a damned good day to revise IF I hadn't experience my worst cramp in months today. I spent half the time puking, visiting the loo, and the other half pressing the hot-water bottle and rubbing medicated oil to my tummy in bed. I hate cramps.

It was about 7 p.m. by the time I was finally okay and awake; after which I had to head down to Cathay to meet the primary school clique for B&Js.

Got back home an hour and a half later, and played mahjong with Mumsy, Dad & YF. During which, Dad saw my tattoo. All these while, I've been trying to hide it from them, Mum especially, since she was more likely to have spotted it, coming to my room early morn and stuff like such. Who knew Dad turned out to be the one to have discovered it first. I think he'll probably give me a scolding when CNY's over, but right now, the cat's finally out of the bag, and I'm feeling liberated!

大年初二

Every lunar new year, my paternal relatives and us will gather at my grandma's place on 初一, to exchange new year greetings, red packets, mandarin oranges and 'help out' with clearing of new year goodies. And in between all that chomping on mixed nuts and pineapple tarts, some of us will start playing Blackjack, some will be watching T.V. and the rest will probably be fussing over the youngest one in the family.

On the second day of Chinese New Year, we meet up (again) with the same paternal relatives at Grandma's place, and once everyone's present, we will set off for the houses of all the relatives who are present to '拜年' again, and of course, to clear all the CNY goodies in their homes. I've been thinking that, perhaps next time round, I can spend the time visiting friends, or other relatives that I've yet to visit instead of heading to the homes of the relatives whom I've just spent nearly an entire day with. Is it just me and my family who has this practice, or do you guys actually do the same thing back home?

Most of the extended family; taken at my 大伯's Tanjong Rhu condo.

If you're thinking why I haven't talked about visiting my maternal relatives, I usually don't because about 85% of them are in Penang. I stopped CNY visits to Penang when I was in primary school; & I really miss CNYs in Penang, because you get to set off fire-crackers and those were the highlights of my Penang CNYs back then.

Mums and I were wearing dresses in the same shade of navy green.

Anyhow, YF did most of the driving today and I am so glad that I can finally NOT be driving all the time. There were times where he gave us slight frights but mostly, he's safe. Like me usually, but not today. I got really tired and annoyed by the end of the day with my dried-up contact lens and it affected my visibility on the expressway; I made a few careless lane-cuts and over-takings, and I think I gave my family quite a few bad scares there too.

It was never that apparent to me in the past, but this year, I find myself observing how long-winded and auntie-like my aunties (and Mumsy too) can get. Not only that, I also find myself worrying that I'd end up long-winded and auntie-like like them a few years down the road. The thought of me turning into people like them scares me, and it totally makes me wish that I can be forever 21!

First round of questions, and more to come?

It's started! I think I'm going to experience the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th... and many more rounds of questioning from my aunties and uncles for as long as I am single.

Goodness; that's going to take away half the fun of CNY (yes, I actually enjoy CNY).

First Lo Hei of the lunar new year

Met up with KTOWY peeps at Pearl River Palace (Suntec City) last night for our annual reunion dinner. I was really happy to catch up with everyone, and this must've been the first time where EVERYONE's present. ZZ's back from Ontario, Limin's not off flying, and even Cheng Xuan made it down.

all of us, minus ZZ cos she had to run.

It's been like, close to 10 years that we'd first met in CCHS. We've all grown up so damned much, that we're now talking about buying 4D and Toto instead of where to head to for bowling or pool sessions after classes. I wonder what we'll be talking about another 10 years down the road; careers, children maybe?

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to CNY this year. Mum just called to tell me YF's passed his driving practical; so he can get to do all the driving for the house-visits while I can take a rest! Was totally not in the mood for any tutorial discussion during Ludwig's tutorial today; not to mention that I've embarrassed myself not once, but twice, in his presence. Bah.

Huat ah!