It might seems premature that I do a Lunar New Year 2013 roundup entry when there are about three more days left before the celebration is actually over (there are actual individual cultural significance for each 15 days of Lunar New Year, some of it might be clan/regional specific) but considering the Lunar New Year Golden Weeks (9-17 February) (the timing for this year's CNY is pretty good because they got Monday and Tuesday as public holiday and most of them has to clear off their annual leave so they just apply leave for the rest of the week.) in which the celebration is at its peak is already petering out and everybody else has already gone back working at somewhere else, Lunar New Year fun for me is by all mean over and done. All that's is left for me are leftover tidbits and soft drinks to binge on and the looming fear of returning to reality after being iding for too long. Oh, and all the great memories that I had with friends and family.
Before I proceed with my Lunar New Year roundup, this post is going to be divided roughly according to significant events and happening during Lunar New Year as well as random thoughts and observation. Let's start, shall we?
The first two days of Lunar New Year is generally uneventful consisted of visiting the elder relatives or receiving visits from parents' colleague or younger relatives as well as paying tributes at the temple especially on day two (初二) specifically reserved for paying tributes to my (maternal) grandparent with the rest of the (maternal) extended families. That's was fine because the first two days of CNY is when one rakes in on red packets from relatives. In fact, that's usually the only time I got to rake in on any monetary rewards and probably the last few years I am able to do so as I reaches adulthood and (supposed to) enter the workforce.
In the mean time, I was anticipating calls or invites for visits, perpetually peering at my mobile phone or Facebook updates (when I am not outside visiting relatives of course) anxiously to see if there's any signs of invitation. I thought that my quite impassioned public invitation to my home by being wax lyrical about my dad's signature sour pork leg and curry chicken which is only available first day and possibly second if there's any leftover. You'll have to wait until next year if you want to enjoy it again!
Anyway, two days has gone by. Both my mobile phone and Facebook notification was eerily silent. I tried to reassure myself that perhaps everybody else has been busy visiting their own relatives which mean they're probably too occupied to make phone calls or check on Facebook. (Come to think of it, people probably didn't got to see my post at all if they were outside making their rounds of visiting relative so my impassioned invitation is counterproductive at best.) When the third day (初三) come and goes along and attractive pictures of happy people making their round visiting best friends began to surface on my Facebook feeds, I was GRIPPED with FEAR if there are no forthcoming visiting invites and no one coming to visit me, I am not going to be able to see any of my friends for this Lunar New Year. My desperation was further exacerbated by the fact that my younger brother Tate has been making his round visiting friends of his from day to midnight (raking in LOADS of angpow money in the process. Bloody hell he sure has loads of friend which is quite well off.) which left me comparatively SAD and LONELY.
Day Four (初四). The situation has come to a point that the usually passive me thinks that ENOUGH is ENOUGH and I began making desperate round of messaging to the closest friends which I usually team up for years whenever there are CNY visits to friend's place checking whether I can visit their place or not. It is also around the same period of time that Bei Shan thought of the same thing too that she made her public invites for Pai ni too. TaukeLip said OK for me visiting him so off I went to hang around his shop. It's also around that point of time that we finally got hold of Owen whom has been MIA for the past three days (turns out he turned off his phone and busy visiting relatives) and from that point on, a visiting plan has FINALLY came into shape. I got to visit Owen at his home before moving on to pick up Ah Lip, moving on to Bei Shan's place before all of us continued our journey to Bella (moved to a new home much closer to the city center) and ShanHui, both of them still as bubbly as usual.
What a GREAT NIGHT it was, finally got to meet and visit them. It never ceases to amaze me the vast range of topic that all of us would talk about whenever we got together from trend and prospect of 13th Malaysian General Election (any time now or within 60 days after Negeri Sembilan dissolves itself sometime during late march), a comparison of television and subtitling production quality in different countries (with specific emphasis on soap opera and drama) to a bubbling idea of new matchmaking app (tentatively FindLove) as a tangent from ShanHui and Bella's latest obsession with PhewTick, interspersed with hilarious reminiscing of our bygone halcyon days (of which the highlights were that Indian guy and his green Myvi that always block ShanHui's car back in St. Thom as well as imaginary drama featuring Titanic-esque sinking sampan at Sarawak River.). Amidst all the good vibes of hanging out with each other however is a new sense of exhaustion that comes with age and working life that most of us just weren't as energetic and enthusiastic when we were back in high school where time and energy seems limitless and whole day of doing rounds of visit seems like a physical challenge. Is it really that inevitable, the weariness that comes with age? Either way and at least I know, I wouldn't want to miss a thing...which is a shame when we spent too much time with each other that we casually forgot to take group photos. Then again, who needs photo when we have memories!
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| Day Five (初五) (which just so happens to be 14 February or Valentine's Day): A impromptu late Buntal seafood dinner escapade with Owen's UKM Kuchingite uni-mates featuring a new acquaintance, Lisa, an American Born Chinese Intern who Owen got to know recently. Having seafood in Kampung Buntal means a few must order dishes will appear namely Midin the succulent jungle fern, Teochiew Orh Chien/oyster omelette and Tek Ham/Bamboo clam. Too bad I was only able to take picture of the midin as I was peckish and were too busy eating instead. |
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| Their soup bases even regardless of chicken stock or spicy is heavily spiced which is exactly what we need in light of recent rainy weather. As typical of class gathering, there are a lot of catching up to do especially those who's already holding PR in Australia and New Zealand. There are quite a noticeable amount of us working in professional fields especially pharmacy, medicine and engineering while only a few of us that actually proceeds to postgraduate studies or even a second degree in which one of them is me. I wonder what will my profession be in the future. Anyway, while half of us proceed with their afterparty at Backstage at The Junk, the more subdued, relax half of us went to Tray at Padungan for a drink and unwind. Initially we were thinking about going to Bing! Coffee but it was full and as fate would have it as we went to Tray that we were in time to witness of one of our schoolmate of different class were proposed by her long time boyfriend! In fact, the whole cafe was set up for the proposal by the lucky guy while us from 5s1 were just so happen to crash in! Definitely my first time witnessing a public wedding proposal. When the thing settled down, we moved on with more catching up not to mention finally trying one of the most famous soft drinks in Kuching namely Ribena Sprite. |
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| Reproduced from CK's profile featuring roughly half of us from 5s1 2004. May our friendship continues to lasts for years and years to come and certainly could use more gathering like this. Let's make it an annual thing! |
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| Day 7 (初七): Breakfast with taukes and taukenios at Foody Goody at Stutong in which we experienced the unleashed hunger of Kuchingite looking for breakfast after being too busy with CNY for almost a week, a little more visiting to Joanne's with Sunnee (5s4 and U6S2) place before a hangout at Basaga (my first time) with YingYing (5s4), Adeline, Anna and JiaYiing (5s2). Basaga looks like they seems to run out of menu item especially when they don't even have Ribena to whip up Ribena Sprite. Grr. |
Day 8 (初八): Sunday, the very last day of the Lunar New Year Golden Week.
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| Some business such as my local market's food stall has finally begun operation and with normalized prize (though there are some places that jacked up their price during CNY eve decided to keep it that way for the rest of the year...a sign of rampant inflation and the end of cheap local food.). Meanwhile at local town square, the all too familiar grinning (which can be quite unnerving to look at) face of PM Najib appeared as the local branch of BN is having their CNY celebration. It was a subdued affair due to drizzling rain with only two tents but it still doesn't stop the public for making their tax money worth by making repeated round at food tent (of course, including me. Me and my dad was even able to tapau some back home as the town square were just right behind my home) as wells as kids receiving angpow from local politicians. |
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| This is also the last day Tate is going to be around before heading back to USM for a new semester so dad finally got to cook the lamb chops we bought before CNY. Behold, lamb chop with oriental sauce, fresh salad with American style mayonnaise for dressing and wedges served appropriately on traditional family chinas that only appears for CNY! One rather hilarious realization as we were setting up the table is the lack of proper cutlery (specifically, knifes) to tackle to lamb chop that we have scour whatever dining or small cutting knife we have in order to have our dinner! The first thought that came to my mind was: woes of middle class aspiration. |
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| Day 9 (初九), Monday 18 February: the first day after the end of Lunar New Year Golden Week in which Taukes and Taukenios who have not left yet gathers for one last limteh session to fulfill the Kuching foodie list at Song Kheng Hai Market, famous for their variety of shaved ice such as (top left) White Lady and Ang Tau Peng as well as (right) Matterhorn, Kongpia (bottom left) including experimenting with cheese besides the usual meat and last but not least (bottom right), Belacan Beehoon. All of which were taken picture of and uploaded to Whatsapp/Facebook/Instagram just to tickle the taste bud of those who already flown back to West Malaysia especially Owen! GG group on Whatsapp! Looks like if I didn't change my mobile phone soon, I will be left out of loop from updates! |
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| With almost everyone I know went back to respective career somewhere else, it's only apt for me to wrap up this post with a picture of the angpows I managed to rake in this year. I think this is the most I can get probably for the next few years and it is going to be inevitably became lesser as one ages further so no, I am not going to reveal the amount of money I received. Aside from generic angpows from banks and random merchandises, there's one particular angpow that catches my interest namely the one from my 5th aunt whom we have not seen for the longest time because all their children is in Singapore now with their AirFrance-KLM/Martinair Cargo group angpow! I wonder how did they get their hand on this special angpow. Definitely worth keeping! |
Epilogue: Reality. Oh dear. Make or break?
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