Friday, February 03, 2006

A not-so-typical Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is slightly different this year....why?

1) My bro is back...finally...after dunno-how-many years of absence he's finally back from Chicago...he got back on the night of the first day of new year though :P

2) Related to (1)...I only collected ang pow for my bro on day 1...hehe...and I dun get to keep his money anymore...hahahaha...

3) Used to go visiting only on the first day...morning father's relative on the island...afternoon mother's relative on the mainland...but this year...we visited my mum's relative on the second day...hehe...my bro's fault...we din wanna go Butterworth twice...so gotta wait for my bro to come back first :P

4) I had steamboat 6 times!!! My bro's fault too :P Used to be 3-4 times...i.e. eve dinner, 1st day bfast, lunch...then another day with my uncle (mother's younger bro) and family...this year an additional 1st day dinner and 2nd day bfast :D

5) 2 of my cousins are missing...actually they have been missing b4 the past couple of years...one cousin in Russia studying medicine, the other in Aussie...eh..working? used to be studying some computer stuff :P

6) My 9 year old cousin, Sam, decided to come along for visiting this year...after skipping last year...he wants to collect ang pows...haha...unfortunately, the amount collected actually just a fraction of wat we get from those collected on the eve...hehe...wonder if he noticed that...

Otherwise...it's pretty much the same old things...eg.

1) Weather is terribly hot!!!

2) We have the same yummy steamboat for reunion dinner...this time "hosted" by my uncle from Sabah...at his bro's place...we take turns to host since 4 years ago...starting from the eldest to the youngest...next year is my family's turn again (my dad is the eldest)
Anyway we have the usual yummy stuff in our steamboat...plenty of seafood from Sabah...my uncle always bring plenty of seafood back regardless of who's hosting :D
Of course...we also had our traditional "secret recipe" smoked duck...yum yum!!

3) We go visiting together (5 families) in 2 cars (actually a van and a car) after the yummy steamboat bfast from the night b4...wonder if we could all fit into 2 cars if my bro were back earlier...probably need 2 vans then...

4) Keep eating and eating everywhere we go visiting :P


Now that I'm back in S'pore...it's back to workaholic mode :D

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