Sunday, February 18, 2007
Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, 大年初一.. Here's wishing everyone have a properous and smooth sailing year ahead. May there be happiness and good health always. It's a long weekend. Hope everyone take the chance to have a good break and spend quality time with your family and loved ones.Time flies. This is the 23rd Chinese New Year in my life and i am amazed how different it is year after year.. When i was a kid, was living in a 4 room flat in Clementi. My family was less well doing and life was pretty simple. The eve of New Year, there will always be praying to the 天公. So a big table would be set up right in the middle of my living room and all the offerings will then be placed on it. In the middle of the night i'd get out of bed just to go steal teochew soft candy which kinda extinct already today. Hehe.. tat's why i am chubby all my life la! Cant resist food. Hee..CNY was much simpler then. When i moved on Bukit Timah at 8, my dad's business did well (that was before the financial crisis.) and i remember our CNY dinner was often at chinese restaurants or hotels. Everyone would be dressed up for the ocassion.. Shortly after that i moved at 10 again to my current resident.. CNY has been pretty elaborated and cos of dad's involvement with temple manegements, every year there will be lion dance at my place, to start the year off bustling and lively. There were some years that we decided to travel, once to europe and another few times to australia to visit my aunt in Sydney.Recent years, esp after my mum became less mobile, we travelled less and even our daily lives became simple. CNY dinners were kept to minimal hassle. Kinda felt the real meaning of CNY gets forgotten year after year.. Now that my sis dont live with me anymore, CNY eve has became jus another night with the only difference is that we have dinner together as a family. Most of the other times we pack and eat at different time...I'm not sure why i'm talking abt all these. There's no objective. Perhaps jus wanna share my thoughts while i reminisce about childhood and the happier times..As days go by, the time we spend with our loved ones just seemed lesser and lesser. Like how my clique of buddies always make it a point to visit Chinatown together b4 CNY just to get the festive mood.. We missed it this year cos everyone is busy and we cant arrange a day where everyone else is free. Nevertheless we're still gonna catch up on Monday to go visiting and have steamboat at Elaine's place.. I'm so looking forward. Quality time with them are getting so little i have to treasure every single minute even more.Till my next post with all the pictures, here's wishing everyone have a great time this season and cheers~! p.s. Overeating is common this period of time, given the amount of mouth watering confectionaries that awaits us. Word of advise is to eat in moderation and drink lots of plain water and load up on greens and fruits to stay in da pink of health..