2008 Chinese New Year

The 2008 Chinese New Year is meant to be a very special CNY to me. It’s my second CNY at home after returning from Perth, and it is also the rat year, my own Chinese horoscope year, which means I’m already bloody 24 years old!!! Okay, 24 is okay to me, but damn I’m so not looking forward for the next rat year!!!
Anywayz, as usual I have to be back in Taiping for the CNY. And I gotta say this year is pretty boring because of the lack of visitors and the lack of me visiting people. I even skipped my old classmates’ gathering. And of course the ang pows also getting lesser and lesser…Arrrrhhhh...

Balik Kampung...Woh.. Balik Kampung...Me & Ducum, on the way home.
So here are some highlights…
Reunion Dinner… Which I always have a double, one at my dad’s side and one at my mom’s side. Although the dishes are always quite the same, but still they are very precious to me, who had been eating ‘outside food’ and ‘mi maggi, senang dimasak, sedap dimakan’ for the past few months. The double-reunion dinners I had!!!
The mom’s red wine soup… My mom cooks and serves that every Cho Yat morning and I love it, love it, love it!!! Red Wine chicken soup with mee sua... Best breakfast ever!!!

The non-stop photo-taking session with my cousins... You know I love taking pictures, and CNY is the best time as we have our new clothes on and we have the opportunities to take pictures with our cousins whom some of them we really see them only once a year! At my dad’s side, we are all grown up kids so we can pose like crazy, and at my mom’s side we have some cute babies we would only pose for you when they are in their mood… A proper version of the 'family photo' of the cousins...

The crazy version of the 'family photo' of the cousins!Leng luis of the Tan family!

My cousin brother's son, the new member of the family, Shan Zhi, oh no... Adam, I gave him the name! Hehehe...

Carina:What are you looking at? Biao Chi?
A candy for a picture with Carina!
Cute, cute, cute little Carina, my cousin sister with the make-up I put!
Me, Eu Jin and Jan Yi, my cousins!
This is my other cousin sister, Tessa, say hi!

One of me, with my CNY dress that looks more like a clubbing dress!

The 2 Karaoke sessions… I’m not kidding, I went to Karaoke on both the Cho Yee and Cho Sam nights. I think we started the Karaoke thingy last year with my mom’s side went for a crazy one and that made them ‘gatal’ and demanded to have another one this year. So on Cho Yee night we went and had a crazy night of oldies as well as some new songs by us, the kids. Imagine, all my aunts and uncle dancing like crazy! Oh, and there was this kid who loves singing oldies, by the way. My cousin bro, Eu Jin who looks like an old-time Chinese patriotic people when singing again, his favourite singer 黄清元’s song... 我们的过去，我们的过去...... Hahaha… That was really funny! And after we sang Pussy Cat Dolls’ Don’t Cha, they actually asked us :"Eh, what do you mean by ‘Don’t Cha’?” In the end of the night, my uncle who was obviously half drunk started a peanuts shell war. Pity those girls who had to come in and clean up the room for the next costumers coming in… Haha… Well, you’re charging a lot you know? So do your work! Family Karaoke session had just started!Oh yeah! We are definitely in a mood to dance!
Yes, the Karaoke people are really earning a lot during the CNY I can assure you. The price is really scary, yet the business is so bloody good!
And yes, it didn’t stop me from going for a second time on Cho Sam, this time with my dad’s side. But this one was solely for the kids and one aunt who can be as crazy as us. It was a good one too since we know most of the songs. Oh yea, we didn’t know the song that my cousin Ah Kia sang. He is another version of Eu Jin, only Eu Jin probably has a better voice than him. Ah Kia has a weird choice of songs too, but he sang out of tune almost the entire song and we kinda you know… Enjoyed the fun of listening to him! Hehehe… With my cousin sisters Sin Fei and Ju Lin around, we had lots of Lee Hom’s songs, and with my sister and me around, we had a good number of Jay Chou’s too! The 3 hours wasn’t enough, although it was already 12am! Second CNY Karaoke session!!! Yoo~Hoo~!I'm pretty sure we were getting real high singing 恋爱-ing!

Ah Kia, Ah Kia with his own rendition of Tong Hua.......

Rock on! Ducum and me love Karaoke!!!

Old schoolmates gathering… It’s like a compulsory gathering for ‘the gang’ every Cho Sam. Except for Ah Fa whom I always meet in KL, this is the only time of the year for me to meet the rest of ‘the gang’. One thing I really appreciate is the fact that although we only see each other once a year, we are never short of topics to talk about! We can just chit-chat non-stop and luckily the café we went this year was quiet enough, although Eng Keat definitely missed his food at Panorama, the hotel which we went for out CNY gathering every year! And of course, we are still the gang who love taking pictures, so there were tons of photos taken and I have to take my time to send them out to each of them!
Anywayz, I gave the 5sc6 class gathering a miss this year because of the Karaoke session. So sorry guys, hope to see you guys other days!

Haha... If you don't know, I can tell ya we love taking pictures together since we were in school!Big happy family of 'the gang', love you guys!

Stephanie Sun!!! No, it's just YY, who is yes residing in Singapore.

And not to forget, the non-stop food…Besides the reunion dinners I had, of course we have food every day, every hour, every minute and every second. I’m freaking serious! Probably because of the beliefs that during CNY you shouldn’t have empty rice container, we never had empty rice container, empty whatever! My granma cooked everyday that I feel bad for her. It’s pretty tiring you know! My aunt also had her steamboat for us on the third day, which I love a lot although I didn’t have much time to enjoy it. I mean, it’s my favourite steamboat! And what about those snacks we had? The CNY cookies, the bak gua, the fattening soft drinks and beer (which, fortunately I really take less this year), etc? Anywayz, I must admit, the dinner we had on the second day of CNY at the restaurant was lousy as compared to the price. The extra bit is I went to a temple near my house to pray. You know I never know how to do all these stuffs, I just followed my mom around and followed all the steps she did. I also went求签,you know the routine that you always see in the HK drama? The one that you hold a cylinder and shake until one of the sticks inside drop out? Ah, that’s the one! I went and asked about my career and about getting a job outside Malaysia. And guess what? I got a good one! I really wish that’s true! And erm… I just figured I forgot to wish everyone of you Happy Chinese New Year! So since it is still CNY, I wish all of you a very Happy Chinese New Year!!!

恭喜发财啊！龙马精神啊！身体健康啊！