HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

The time of the year has arrived. The yearly gatherings and gambling has arrived. I had a short conversation with my classmates the other day. One of them was a Malaysian and the other a Singaporean. We were talking about how we were going to spend our CNY this year. My Malaysian classmate told us that first she would go to JB where her house is at and celebrate reunion dinner with her extended family members and then on CNY afternoon, they would go to Ipoh where her mum's family is located at and spend one day over there before making their way back to JB.

My other Singaporean friend was kinda shocked by the itinerary a lot of time is spent on traveling as my Malaysian friend mentioned that she has once waited 4 hours to cross over from Singapore to Malaysia. My Singaporean friend then mentioned that she will just visit her relative's place and answer the usual questions before like having nothing to do at her relative's place. My Malaysian friend then proceeded to say that CNY in Malaysia was pretty big and they would also light fireworks like every household and they would stay up almost every night with events going on.

 

 My Singaporean friend then said: " I think next time when we are adults, no one will celebrate CNY, everyone will go overseas. " Woah, that sentence hit me hard! That'll be so sad. But for now, let's enjoy the time we have with our family during this period. My grandma is getting older and she now has a maid to help her in food preparation. We have also been losing chances of trying her homemade skills like bak zhang during dumpling festival and ngoh hiang during new year as they have proved to be too taxing for her. Wishing everyone a HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR AND MAY YOU PROSPER IN THE YEAR OF THE DOG! AND ALSO GOOD HEALTH!