Chinese New Year 2005

Chinese New Year 2005

Chinese New Year Day 1---9 Feb 2005

It is yet another festive season where all chinese and some non-chinese celebrate the start of a brand new rooster year!

For the kids, it's the fun of meeting up with the other cousins and having fun, chomping on the new year goodies, wearing the new clothes that you had bought weeks or months ago, and of course, the Ang-Bao collecting.

For the parents and people who are married, it's high time to give away ang baos, even to kids you don't know, and "bai nian" to their elders, wishing them good health, prosperity, and longevity.

So my day 1 of chinese new year was pretty much the same as the previous years. Just that i stopped any bad comments on anything before they even came out of some mouths. Thus, the whole day, only good comments on my clothes and hair went into my ears. Hahaha.. That's like selective listening. Right...

And since there was nothing nice the local TV station was showing, we decided to take some photos...
My family of four...


Me and my aunt who dotes on me a lot...but sometimes she speaks to me like i'm still i kid. I guess we'll still be kids in her heart. ;)


Grandma(Dad's mum) and my bro..


My Mum and my aunt


Nice choreography..


With the "Chicky pillows"


And me with the "Ying Chun Hua"--a kind of flower where people often buy and display in their houses during chinese new year..


Presenting to you the dunno-how-old horse painting behind us...


My bro...



Just me from the "antique" mirror...


Next Stop, Mum's parents' house.
My bro, me , and my two cousins...


Once i came, they asked for my mobile and started playing games. They enjoyed the games as much as i did when i first got my phone. Well, maybe more than i did...
They started playing...

and playing...

and still playing even when we wanted to take some photos...


Finally, we managed to take some photos with them looking in to the camera and say "Cheese".





But when we left the room...


He started playing AGAIN...


My mum couldn't understand why..


So she gave up staring at the boys who were totaly engrossed in their games and tok a photo with her dear daugther, me.


Before we proceeded to my Dad's mum's place again for dinner, we had the fabulous Curry that my grandma specialises in, and which anyone who ate it, praises it. I myself loves my grandma' curry, no other curry can be better than hers, cuz it's made with love. Awww...

Not forgetting my grandma's second speciality, popiah. Everyone, no matter how full they are, will take one popiah on their own. Grandma would take orders(chilli or not, chinese sausage or not, beansprouts or not..etc..), and make on-the-spot. I must say once again, it's the best Popiah in the universe made with love.

I love grandma and grandpa. *Muackz*

Next stop, Sheng Hong Temple at Pandan Gardens. Never heard of? It's a very well-known temple somewhere near Teban Gardens.(still don't know? Look at the map, somewhere near Jurong East...)

Every year without fail, this would be our second last stop. Due to respect for the deities, no photos were taken in the temple, although you are able to see footages on channels like Discovery.

After every visit or prayer done, my heart feels peaceful and calm, as though every problem in the world would be solved no matter what. Hereby, i sincerely thank Guan Ying Niang Niang for always fulfilling my wishes whenever i pray hard.

After the spiritual session, we went back to Dad's mum's place for dinner.

For the whole day, we have been eating and eating non-stop. So much so that i think it'll be a hard time shedding those extra pounds on those extra pounds. For the next few days, it'll be simpler and healthier food for me. Remind me alright...Geez...

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Chinese New Year Day 2-----10 Feb 2005

This day is reserved for my great-grandmother(Mum's mum's mum). We used to visit her only on the thrid day of chi new year, but there's a saying, "If you are sincere, you'll visit on the first and second day. But if you're not sincere, you'll only visit on the third or fourth day." Thus, since years ago, we've brought forward to the second day to show our sincerity. ;)

Aunt XiaoFei's(she doesn't like us to call her 'aunt', so we just call her 'XiaoFei')special pizza specially made for us cuz she knows we always come for her cuisines. Haha..


The kids at play...


"Lou Hei!~"




And the steamboat dinner starts...


Before the dinner, around tea-break time, my aunt had baked two pizzas for us cuz she knew we liked her pizzas and almost whatever she cooked for us. Actually she's just graduated form the Medicine faculty a year ago and is a doctor with NUH now. Her story is rather inspiring. She had started off as a rebellious teenager who doesnt like to have anything with studies. My grand-aunt chased her with canes for her to study and hired countless tuition teachers to coach her.

Fortunately, my aunt woke up one day and started studying real hard. She tasted the sweetness of her success and got into a prestigious JC. There, she met her boyfriend who kept encouraging her and pulled her along in her studies. Soon, they entered NUS with fantastic results.

After 5 years of studying, they've recently graduated.(Her boyfriend applied from debarrment from NS, in fact he said most to-be-doctors' debarrment requests were approved until they graduated, so he's going pretty soon.)

It's been a year now since they've graduated, and my aunt seems to enjoy her job a lot through the way she narrates her job. She's a very nice person and treats us very well, and i believe she'll be a great doctor. All the best!

When i looked at their family photo hung on the wall, i actually envied them. It was a photo with my aunt, her second brother(who graduated the same time as her due to NS, with First Class Honours), her first brother with his wife who's a psychologist, and their parents. Except for the parents, the rest of them were don in their graduation robes.
Here's a glimpse of them, their portrait is at the back of my cousin, Diana and I.


Family photo of 4 generations...

When they weren't ready yet...

Smilez!~



And my Great-grandmother and Diana's dog look so blissful together that we were talking about getting a dog as a companion for her. But the conditions that came with a dog would tire her out, so we pushed the thought aside.

Diana with Great-grandma


When i plugged the camera cable to the television, my great-grandma asked, "How come our people are on tv?"

Everyone laughed, cuz somehow, somewhere, i guess she just lost touch with the advancement of technology.

Anyway, Chinese New Year day two was also rather fun. Not exactly exciting, but simple and heart-warming kind of fun.

ChEeRs AhOys!~ ;)