CNY 2012 Recap

I have been wanting to write about my Chinese New Year holiday for quite some time now, but I didn’t get around to do it. Until now.

Remember the promise I made last year ‘”To attend the big Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner 団圆饭 at my cousin’s place”? Well I skipped it. Again.

I even skipped on the annual get-together with my friends and my brothers’ friends. I always had a lot of fun going to that particular gathering. But since my mom was asking me to stick around to be one of their ‘kaki’ to gamble, I had no choice but to obey the woman who gave birth to me.

I do see myself as an anti-social person. I fell quiet when there were more talkative people in the group. I mean I preferred it because I don’t have to do all the talking in an awkward situation.

I remembered one time, that G had to drag me across the floor by my feet to go ‘Yum Cha’. I don’t feel comfortable going to a place where I had to ride pillion on a bike. Not because it was with Beachboy. It doesn’t help to know that there was a high death statistic of College students around the area. There was big ass construction Lorries all around us!!

Anyway, I did manage to get together with my childhood friends. Linah & Cheryl. Chal was also at the same place and at the same time. I got to spend some personal time with Cousin Induk & Isut as well over a short drink.

The main thing that I wanted to tell you are that, it rained the whole week I was there (Ranau). It actually felt like I was living in Fork,Washington. And the Cullens’ house is just around the corner. It literally rained the whole day from 3am till 7pm. Stopped for a while and rained again till the next day!

But I…. loved it. I love the rainy weather. I loved how it made me lethargic and want to do nothing other than sleep or hibernate the whole day. Yeah, that’s how lazy I am.All this while I thought that I was of a water Dog sign. This explains why I love the rain. But then it turns out that I am of a Strong Fire Dog Sign (From an astrology website that my boss found). Which probably explains why I can’t swim and I’m terrified of drowning. I slept with the fan on (I have to have some breeze on my face, else I feel like I can’t breathe), 2 layers of blankets and also wearing a sweater. I can’t remember where my socks are. Mom had rearranged my whole wardrobe. So my feet were freezing.

I spent time with my brothers, mom and dad, with the nanny,with the baby, with the lady of the house- Shenaiah and with the in-laws. I loved watching how Shenaiah controlled all of us. How we would all give her anything that she wanted. Well almost all. With Khiong in particular. For those who don’t know this 2^nd elder brother of mine, let me tell you something. He is the most introvert person I know. Growing up, he keeps to himself. Really hot tempered and doesn’t like anybody messing with any of his stuff. He had a very short fuse. So I was really surprised that he can take all of the Shenaiah. She would grab the iPad from him while he’s playing Armies of Darkness. He would just muttered ‘You don’t know how to play this’. And she would say ‘I know... I know…’. The sweetest thing I saw was, he was lying on the sofa with his head propped against a big fluffy pillow while playing with the iPad and Shenaiah was leaning her head on the side of his head to look in on the action. Aw moment here. Other aw moment was when the boys (my cousin Kelek & lil’ bro’ Aping) gave Grandma Umpil a hug.

The other thing that I admired about my niece is that, she would speak Mandarin with my Dad. Y also noticed this and recalled back when we were little, no matter how often my Dad spoke to us in Mandarin, we would always replied in Malay. One time she even said, ‘Bye bye Kung Kung’.. to myDad when she was leaving the room. Dad had quite a hearing problem. So, she repeated it several times until my Dad actually acknowledged her. Erm, and I think I have inherited the hearing problem.

When 3^rd elder brother’s wife family came tovisit, I kind of hid in the bedroom or take over gambling from the tired ‘kaki’. Actually I did the comical version of back-against-the-wall act. :D. Luckily I have the most extrovert (this is a compliment) Eldest brother & wifey, who did all the socializing for us. Heh :). Y was not even around at that time! He was at the annual gathering at a friend’s house. The very one that I missed out on.