Firstly Happy Chinese New Year! When I was young, I used to look forward to CNY, not only for the red packets, but also the fun and the goodies. I still recall that when I was young, there was a chance that my birthday would fall on on CNY and I would get a double ang pao ha.. But as I get older now you do not have the same kind of expectations anymore. People will start asking about what you are doing, are you seeing someone, are you planning to get married soon and all. Minus all these, however I get to meet some people that I haven seen for a long time which we probably only meet once a year which is during CNY.
1 thing my family have yearly is steamboat for reunion dinner. There would be my family and 4 of my relatives so it'll be a dinner for 10! There would be lots of food, mean from pork to chicken to fish to prawns and to roast pork and duck, then vegetables, mushroom, abalone, fish maw, different kinds of fishballs n meatballs and many more. Forgotten to take pictures of it. Must remember to do so the next time round ha. This year had one more steamboat when my sister's friends came along and they brought a dish which my family seldom buy which I love -- beef! Ha i had lots of it.. And its one of the rare occassions which I love the soup.
Previously, during CNY I would have so many places to go but nowadays things are different. Or perhaps its me who have lost the feeling of going visiting. Perhaps don't really feel like answering the standard questions which people will usually ask when they haven't seen you for a long time. Well I grew really close to my neighbour over this period of time, a man in his late forties with 5 beautiful daughters and a son,yeah 4 daughters. We drink together pretty often and many times talking about things that I do not even tell my own parents. I do not know if its due to the beer or he is an easy going person or what reason but we can get along well. I know most of his relatives and his friends and at times some ask how come a young man is hanging with an old man. Ha well I think he isn't really that old and he looks much younger than his age. I always feel that for men, its easier to talk over a drink. There are no boundaries and barriers just like smoking ha..
Was supposed to meet someone for my birthday that day but due to some reason the person cant make it so ended up with no plans. Then went down to grandma's place with my mum and had 'yu sheng' with my relavtives. Came back during late noon and joined my neighbour to one of their friend's place. It was a 3 or 4 storeys high semi-detached which they got the Lion and Dragon Dance troupe to come perform. There was 4 Lions and 1 Dragon and when I was young I really loved the noise and excitment about it. Something interesting was that the hosts actually opened I think at least $100 worth of $1 coins mixed with those gold coin chocolates and while the lion was lying down peeling the oranges, it would throw or 'spit' out randomly the coins and there would be a scramble for the $1 coins. Ha.. It was a rare occassion that you would be hit be money lol.. I managed to get a few $1 without moving about much ha but some of the kids collected quite a lot ha.. End of it all, it was time for some gambling! Ha so get your money down and may Lady Luck be with us all..