First off I am going say I am so sleepy and tired! Oh my god, I wish I can sleep longer in the morning and sleep earlier at night but the fact is I can’t. I don’t know why I sleep so late at night, it’s like every Chinese New Year, I can’t go to bed early and I feel more tiring this year. After having so many New Year meals, I am going to gain weight, at this moment I am so full right now, full until very uncomfortable. Haha, I should have control the volume of food intake. =)
Monday is the first day of Chinese New Year and we called it the 年初一 nian2 chu1 yi1 and Sunday was 年三十 nian2 san1 shi2 which was also the Chinese New Year Eve. It’s a day where family members from everywhere come back home, sit down, eat together for a reunion. I need not going back to hometown because I am born in Penang and hometown is here. I got people coming back from Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Johor, Kedah and as far as China. It’s the only time we see everyone, like or don’t like, we still have to say hi and gong hei fatt choi, you can’t run away from it, it’s the Chinese thing and it’s a must do. I like!
The reunion eat-together for me had divided into two parts, the mother and the father side. We started off our Chinese New Year Eve on the father’s side with steamboat luncheon at father’s mother’s house, in short grandma’s house.
Our entertainment was pretty simple and it was watching Bean on HBO on satellite TV. We laughed around while waiting the steamboat to be prepared and waiting for everyone to arrive.
In the house, the table divided into 2 sides again, we the children or the younger generation were in the living room while the big, fathers and mothers were in the dining room.
(He’s cute, he is my grandma’s younger sister’s husband, so what do I call him in English?)
It’s a steamboat lunch. Why steamboat? Because it’s the only thing that everyone share the same pot of food. I do and don’t like steamboat, it depends on my mood and what’s available. I want a lot of fishballs, meatballs, perhaps abalone, then crabmeat, some vegetable and I prefer tomyam soup in the steamboat. =)
The sight is now turned to another side, my mother’s side and it’s a reunion dinner. No more steamboat but buffet at a hotel at Batu Ferrighi. Firstly, I want to say that the buffet was not good, lousy and the environment got no Chinese New Year feel, it’s so quiet there. Oh my god and anyway, the main point is reunion, but then reunion also must have good food. I’ll just have to forget about it and blacklist that place in my mind.
There’s a live band but frankly, they’re not good. Gong Xi Fatt Chai, even though they tried singing Chinese New Year song, at some part I didn’t even know what they’re singing. Hehe.
Cousins and me. Don’t know why there’s not much Chinese New Year feel here in Penang. The state government should have decorate the street more and perhaps allow firecrackers. It’s so quiet and there’s only a little firecrackers sound can be heard when the clock strikes 12. For past few years, fireworks can be seen at Gurney Drive but there’s nothing this year. Why so serious?
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