Chinese New Year

Now that the few days of Chinese New Year are gone, I can sum it all up into one conclusion, that it's all about visiting relatives and friends and of course without fail every year we will eat like crazy as though our stomach suddenly developed 4 stomachs like a cow. Towards the new year, there has been a sudden increase in expenses on food, food prepared and food consumed. One of the few dishes original to Malaysia is the yee sang.The Malaysian dish "Yee Sang" consists of such a rich assortment of food, that I just wander what would it be like to prepare each of those at home. Now that all these can be bought off the shelf, most of the main ingredients are already there and as usual every year I have to get the spring onions and the orange ready for this wholesome dish, which essentially consists of a bunch of vegetables, little bit of meat, some fruits, like the oranges and pomelo and a tad bit of wine.

In fact, every new year we buy tons and tons of food ranging from Carlsberg, Jolly Shandy, Luncheon meat, oranges, chocolates, chicken, duck, pork, vegetables, "nian gou", kuih kapet and a bunch of other food from the market, so much so that we have to stuff nearly everything into our poor fridge. Thankfully, we have two fridges. And NO...we don't stuff those cartons of shandy and carlsberg into our fridge. We merely just relocate them some place else. And of course at a strategic location for consumption. Ahhh, the beauty of Chinese New Year....HEHEHE

So when it comes to food during the New Year, it's all about overindulgence and being impulsive. Gosh, and it's almost clashing with Lent. What GREAT Timing...

But of course, most of us throw open house and reunion dinners to foster closer relationships between each other, some of them whom we rarely meet. And with the sheer size of my extended family, nearly every meal is like a huge buffet where we are all spoilt for choice. Sometimes there's just too much food that leftovers have to be distributed. Even our dogs get a share of the bones from our food. Ahh, but that's normal but Chinese New Year most certainly brings more bones for them.

Since my extended family has grown a bit from all the weddings we had last year, our ang pau share also seems to have grown. More so to come next year but sigh...I wouldn't be around to get it. I 'll be in Queensland by then.

And then comes the question of when I would be ready to be giving "ang paus". Ahh, I almost always dread that thought, because almost every year I get hammered with the same question from both sides of my extended family. Can't I just receive ang paus for as long as I want to. So questions like,"When is your turn?" "Got already or not"... Almost everytime I would be saying.."When I'm ready....." But the reason is a thought for another day.

This is also the time where we all see the little young ones in their own mischief and suddenly I felt that this year's CNY is made better with their presence. It's lovely to see them play, scream and run around all in their little cocoon of blissful ignorance. Sometimes I just wish I was them again, running wild and getting all the things that I want without getting into a headache with all those predicaments and troubles of a grown-up. So it is in those moments of silence or awkwardness where they take centre stage. When it's boring, they will most certainly cheer and humour you with their antics. It's pretty amazing how fast they grow up. It was just almost yesterday that they were just born and now they can already laugh, play and speak. Hmm...Should I be a paediatrician???

Ahhh, and all the absence of those loud fireworks these year. I can still remember almost every single bungalow near my area light up a bunch of those rockets up to the sky, lighting it up into a brilliant display of colours which is nothing more than just electrons moving down their energy gradient and also quite synonymous with burning money in the sky. But really, I mean if they think thousands of ringgit can scare all the evil spirits away, let them be....Maybe they're just saving it for another day..But of course I'm not condoning the use of fireworks as a form of leisure.

I think this year's celebration has been one of the best so far. We've actually decorated part of our house for the first time in years....Hopefully the year of the piggyyyy, has much to offer.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!