Happy Chinese Moo Moo Year!

Wishing each and every one of the Cina people out there a very happy and auspicious new year. Whether you're full Chinese, half Chinese, quarter Chinese, 33% Chinese, 68% Chinese or 78% Chinese. We all come as one. Enjoy this special day and hope you had a great reunion dinner.

This year, I had an especially special reunion dinner. A lil too bad that I didn't get the chance to snap some photos. [Especially of the beautifully decorated ingredients for the steamboat. Of course by me =D ]
Anyhow, being able to go through it is special enough. Having so many people celebrating it with us is extra special. Having had the dinner in our very new home adds on to the best of the night.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and all the days to come.
[And of course of all the steamboat meals to come. Brrr~]
Ooo, not to forget what my evil-half told me to say. I'm totally looking forward to all the ang pows to be received. *e-bil laugh* [Pardon my nonsense]

Happy Chinese Moo-Moo New Year !!!
Cheerios~!

p/s: My advise - Don't wear red.
You wouldn't want to get chased by a bull/ox/cow now, do you? *winks*

CNY Celebration in Penang.

One word. SHORT.

The day before CNY.
We had reunion dinner as we always do, every year. And like every year, we have guests.
This year, Bro is home with my future Sis-in-law. ^^ Hehe. Along with them is her lil' nephew, Daniel.
Cute lil' fella, but when he cries... =.=
Then there's my 5th Uncle, paternal side. 4th Uncle couldn't join because he was too 'busy' with the shop. [Bah.]
Then there's the Bong family, excluding Chin Hoong. He is also 'busy' with his shop at the New World Park.

Just like 'tradition' in my home, everything happens like a routine. A yearly routine.
Mom and I would be busy cleaning and preparing all the ingredients. Sis would be busy arranging everything nicely on beautiful plates. Dad would be busy cleaning this and that.
Bro? Lazying larh.

First off, we 'lou sang'. The 'yee sang' was prepared by my Sis, bought from the supermarket. [No salmon added this year, because Mom isn't a fan of raw food.]
Then, we all sat down and enjoy our steamboat dinner. It is steamboat every year alright. ;) The reason is simple, it is the easiest to prepare.
As a lesson from past years, Mom cut down the quantity of each kind of the ingredients. We certainly do not want to end up eating steamboat till 'chor sam' and beyond.
A must have ala carte every year are steamed fish and 'chu tou tong' [pork stomach's soup, direct translation].
Surely never to forget the dessert.

I did the silliest mistake to the red bean soup. There was 2 reasons why I was so dumb.
1. I was really busy helping with the table setting and all.
2. I forgot we were using the slow cooker.

Good God. I added some 'tang yuen' straight into the red bean soup in the slow cooker!
Even more interesting is that I did not realize about the mistake until it was too late.
Until the 'tang yuen' was bloated and bursting and the peanut fillings inside the 'tang yuen' spills out, blending into the red bean soup. *wargh*
The whole pot of dessert tasted so bad, it was wasted. Nobody could ever ever finish the whole thing. =(


First day of CNY
At midnight, we went to worship Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, at Beach Street.
All the 7 of us. Hehe. Nice.

The odometer [I think that's what it's called] on the Hyundai Sonata that Dad drove displayed all 6s on its meter. At first glance, I thought I saw wrongly as I was not wearing my glasses.
Then Dad confirmed that it indeed displays 66666. Mmm. Beautiful number.
Mom said, it's an auspicious number as 6 in Hokkien sounded to be "Luck". Haha. Even more beautiful the number. ^^

The Kuan Yin Temple in Beach Street is one famous temple in Penang.
Even at the first hour of the new Lunar year, it was already full-packed that it is so hard to even move.
Joss-sticks were practically poking at all directions. *fuh* Dangerous.


Second day of CNY
Today's the day for family gathering in the ancestor home, house of my late Grandfather. In Balik Pulau.
This year, only my Eldest Aunt's and 2nd Aunt's families came. Never quite expected all to be gathered together on this day anyway.
The heat inside the house is especially annoying. So, my Sis and I were practically urging my parents to leave. I never liked to stay long anyway.

Right after, we went to 'tip tai sui' [a Chinese tradition] but we couldn't do it that day as the service will only be provided starting on the 4th day of CNY. Dad was abit annoyed with 5th Uncle, as he was supposed to have find out whether the service is available or not, but he told my Dad another thing.
So anyway, since we were already there, we prayed in the temple, and another Kuan Yin temple few metres away.

Then at night, Bro left for KL. He's going to Bangkok the night after.


Third day of CNY
I had a gathering with my friends at 9.30am, but I only woke up at 10am when ET called. Oh God!
By the time I got ready, they had already finished 'dim sum'. Haha.
Glad to know I was not alone though. Hehe. Pei Pei did not wake up in time as well.

We all then headed to the Weld Quay, to the Hainan Cafe.
Actually, the main reason we were there was so that See Mei can take some photos for assignment. XD
And so, we took quite a number of photos together.

As you see, only the 7 of us were there. Others were either busy or going to the temple.
Abit saddening the gathering. =P


Fourth day of CNY
Time to go back to Cyberjaya. *sigh*

I had lab session on Monday, that's why we were practically forced to come back today.
Good God! The highway was so jammed that it took us 8 hours [plus plus] to travel from Penang to Kuala Lumpur.
What a 'fun' journey. ><

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese Mousey New Year to each and everyone of you.

May the mousey brings us good luck, great health and enough wealth in the year to come.
May the year prosper with happiness and laughter.

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Cheers~ ;)

Chinese New Year ‘Balik Kampung’.

Why am I still here?
Reasons are that I had home visits to attend to on Saturday and I shall be following my Bro home.
No, no blames on anything.
Yes, REAL Bro. Flesh and blood. =p

Oh, thank God tomorrow is the day already. I almost can’t wait no more.
Cyberjaya is so totally as dead as it is always described to be already. Everyone is back to hometown as early as last Friday.

*sigh* Last year’s CNY was never near to be like this. It was a semester break, so we actually had a longer holiday for CNY celebration.
Enough time to prepare for the CNY, and enough time to enjoy the CNY before back-to-school.
Sadly this year, new semester started one week before CNY.
But then again, many still did not come back. God, am I jealous or what? ><
Hehe. Well, obviously I wouldn’t have been back for this one week is it hadn’t been for the some responsibilities. [No, it didn’t mean I’m complaining that I have sacrificed. =.= ]

Anyway, I’ve just finished playing ‘Battleship’ with Alex, crashing in Karen’s room.
Yeap, finally we found the time and chance to play the game. =.= It had been said since the last year.
Well, Alex was lucky larh this time. He won the game 3-2. And I was sleepy already. Muahaha. So, it is reasonable that I lost. *blek*
I shall redeem my loss one day soon. You wait. =p

Tomorrow, Karen would be accompanying me to shop before I meet Bro. [Though seriously, I have no idea what else I wanna buy.]
Bingo, we’re skipping class. *winks*
But then again, I THINK most classes are cancelled already. ^^ So, we aren’t that bad, skipping that not-so-many classes afterall. Hehe.

Balik kampung...oh oh oh, balik kampung...
Hati riang ~~~

p/s: It’s gonna be real busy days ahead. So, just in case.
Happy Chinese New Year, people!! *winks*
And also Happy Birthday, Chia Li! =D