CNY Eve
Chinese New Year typically kicks off on its eve -- reunion dinner night.
We headed straight for everybody's favourite baby, Ben, who was getting ready for the party (or "party") -- nappy rash cream and all. It reminded me of when he was born, and the aunts crowded around him in amazement. Instead of making sure that he had the proper number of fingers and toes, the first thing out of their mouths were: "Yi aye jiao jin deng hor!" In English, that means "He has a huge penis!"
Even by my family's standards and record for saying the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate time, it still managed to shock most of us. Will he ever forgive us for embarrassing him? Worse, will he ever forgive me for publishing this in my blog? Ask me in 15 years.
The main event, of course, was still the dinner. Tonight we had two tables: one for the traditional steamboat, and another for shabu-shabu.
Usually, we'd settle down into groups after dinner -- playing Mahjong and other miscellaneous card games. But we accidentally stumbled upon this set of old chinese gambling cards, so we set off on a mission to learn the game ("Four colours," it's called in Hokkien). It took us phone calls to five different (old) people, before one of my uncles arrived to teach us how to play it. What made it worse was that the older generation kept calling out the cards in Hokkien, while my cousins and I could only read the words in Chinese. The rest of the night was spent playing the game wrongly and killing each other with laughter.
(I found a Pfizer towel hanging in my uncle's bathroom, complete with the tagline: "Efficacy that makes a difference." That was something I could have lived happily withoutknowing seeing.)
Last stop: nursery along Clementi Road to get our New Year flowers.
That's Mom in the blue floral top.
And Dad -- typically bored from the selection process.
The orchids were my favourite -- they were also the most expensive of the ones we bought, at $128 a pot.
Pineapples. I'm not sure why these belong in a nursery.
A rooster-shaped plant; tacky, I know, but still worth a picture. :p
We also got to make friends with the (snotty) resident dalmatian!
And this is what they do when snails evacuate their shells! :p
I'm not sure why I'm enjoying these things more as I get older. (And I can't imagine you found this post particularly interesting.) Maybe it's because you don't do them every day. Well, no, I don't take examinations every day either but that doesn't mean that I'm liking them more. So I just don't know. But I think it's a good thing. Rather than loathing this time of busyness and festivities -- as, I know, many people do. I mean, it's going to come around every year; might as well enjoy it, right? :) Now let's just hope this runny nose clears up in time for me to enjoy the rest of the New Year. Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!
We headed straight for everybody's favourite baby, Ben, who was getting ready for the party (or "party") -- nappy rash cream and all. It reminded me of when he was born, and the aunts crowded around him in amazement. Instead of making sure that he had the proper number of fingers and toes, the first thing out of their mouths were: "Yi aye jiao jin deng hor!" In English, that means "He has a huge penis!"
Even by my family's standards and record for saying the most inappropriate things at the most inappropriate time, it still managed to shock most of us. Will he ever forgive us for embarrassing him? Worse, will he ever forgive me for publishing this in my blog? Ask me in 15 years.
The main event, of course, was still the dinner. Tonight we had two tables: one for the traditional steamboat, and another for shabu-shabu.
Usually, we'd settle down into groups after dinner -- playing Mahjong and other miscellaneous card games. But we accidentally stumbled upon this set of old chinese gambling cards, so we set off on a mission to learn the game ("Four colours," it's called in Hokkien). It took us phone calls to five different (old) people, before one of my uncles arrived to teach us how to play it. What made it worse was that the older generation kept calling out the cards in Hokkien, while my cousins and I could only read the words in Chinese. The rest of the night was spent playing the game wrongly and killing each other with laughter.
(I found a Pfizer towel hanging in my uncle's bathroom, complete with the tagline: "Efficacy that makes a difference." That was something I could have lived happily without
Last stop: nursery along Clementi Road to get our New Year flowers.
That's Mom in the blue floral top.
And Dad -- typically bored from the selection process.
The orchids were my favourite -- they were also the most expensive of the ones we bought, at $128 a pot.
Pineapples. I'm not sure why these belong in a nursery.
A rooster-shaped plant; tacky, I know, but still worth a picture. :p
We also got to make friends with the (snotty) resident dalmatian!
And this is what they do when snails evacuate their shells! :p
I'm not sure why I'm enjoying these things more as I get older. (And I can't imagine you found this post particularly interesting.) Maybe it's because you don't do them every day. Well, no, I don't take examinations every day either but that doesn't mean that I'm liking them more. So I just don't know. But I think it's a good thing. Rather than loathing this time of busyness and festivities -- as, I know, many people do. I mean, it's going to come around every year; might as well enjoy it, right? :) Now let's just hope this runny nose clears up in time for me to enjoy the rest of the New Year. Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!
posted by Laughingcow at 1:48 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home