CNY : More Visiting and Posing

Started the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year visiting houses of relatives and friends.

Naturally, after devouring other people’s cookies and sweet delicacies, we sit down and pose for the camera on a tripod.

They want to join in the fun too! I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t like having their picture taken? The ones who denies it are liars.

In the meantime, some of us inane humans feel the utter need of posing in the middle of the road, under the scorching sun. Anything for that perfect shot, isn’t it?

And yet, still find it irresistible to face away from the camera even when we’re cramped pack in the elevator.

Decided to have McDonald’s for lunch, since we were on our feet already, before proceeded to visit more houses!

CNY : More Tripod Fun.

Started off the 2nd day of Chinese New Year at apoh's with plenty of eating, drinking and gambling.

It didn't take long before we started posing again for my camera standing on a miserable tripod while waiting for the lion dance troupe to come by the house.

Yes, we're really full of ourselves, verging on narcissistic and we really love having our pictures taken.

After a long wait, it finally came and the children were excited as hell to see it. No surprise, as it only comes once a year. Talk about anticipation.

Managed to get a group shot of everyone there then, this year - thanks to the tripod after all. Not a perfect shot, but at least it's something, given the rush of the moment.

Carried on the day with our annual visit of relatives living in hills and mountaintops, where electricity is a far cry from home. Then again, it's a once a year affair, reason enough to bear it.

We came, we saw, we conquered camwhored like crazy and trashed the place up before leaving, savagely emptying stacks of boxed drinks and packets and cans of tidbits. Oh, and collected angpaus as well!

And like every year, the one advantage of visiting these folks in the suburbs is that we get to put a hell load of explosives without getting into trouble (the sound is subdued and absorbed by the forest and the trees the house is surrounded by). Only thing this year, a young and innocent banana tree was the casualty.

CNY Tripod Fun.

Started the new year with attending the mass on CNY Eve which lasted till the year transitioned.

Woke up the next day on the 1st day unusually early to start the annual routine of visiting and collecting angpaus.

Put on obligatory new clothes to "usher" in the new world. Just like the rest of the Chinese population.

Started camwhoring as soon as things started getting bored.

Stumbled upon a reflective glass pane and got a shot.

Proceeded to other houses for visiting, or rather "pai nien". Had loads of food and collected a number of angpaus in the process.

The addition of a 2 year old cousin, Amelia, who seems to have a penchant for posing as well, not to mention intruding in most of our photos are evident in the shots. Also seems to have taken a liking to the tripod, constantly working it like a camera and wanting to "snap". Future protege of mine, perhaps?

And of course, camwhored like crazy. Only thing this year was that I decided to bring the tripod along - hence, the full length shots and orchestrated poses.

After a long and tiring day, it still boils down to family unity and I got the entire family shamelessly posing for my camera at the side of the road, regardless.

Chinese New Year '08 - Day 4 & 8

Come the fourth day, most relatives were already packing their bags to go home to their respective states, literally. As I can recall, the only reason why they were still here was because of the reported traffic congestion at the bridge which of course, resulted in their reluctance to return. Jie on the other hand has returned to KL the night before on a hitched ride with a friend. Most of us were still gathered at apoh's place, eating, chatting and of course, gossiping. Seeing that our mothers are in deep conversations, we children didn't do anything much than to play with fireworks. At least they did and I only recorded them.


At one point though, out of boredom and Carina's persistent, or shall I say, annoying whining, I did grab apoh's bicycle and took Carina out for a ride. In fact, we ended up hunting for a river which we both knew existed but just out of sight. We were literally, riding through the thick forestation and turning into every little road we could see and stopping at all the houses which they lead us into just to take a peak at their backyard for the hidden river, while Carina was meddling with my camera behind me. By the time we found it, we were both covered in grime and perspiration and almost out of breath, due to the burning sun (the trees didn't do much shading) and also spotting several bite marks from the mosquitoes. In the end, we found out the river was way too down below for us to even dream of climbing down and taking a dip.


Adventure. from matrianklw on Vimeo.



Road-show. from matrianklw on Vimeo.

We did however, on the way back, saw something grotesque on the road which made me turn the bike around to get a better view and a closer shot - and below was what we came across.

Oh, below is my favorite shot of the day.


4 days later, on the 8th day of Chinese New Year, I got them another gathering at apoh's place seeing that I still had a few bottles of sparkling juice (I can't tolerate alcohol!) stashed in my fridge since Christmas. I just needed another reason for toast and to finish the bottles of sparkling juice, since Chinese New Year was the only big occasion left till we don't know when. I picked the 8th day of Chinese New Year because the kids have no school the following day, coinciding with the 9th day where Buddhists and Taoists hold their religious ceremonies to appease their deities and gods. It's a big event for most Chinese people and therefore, most Chinese schools get an extra day of holiday. Being Catholics, I took the opportunity and hold a fake gathering to appease our hunger and thirst instead, and also because amah wasn't doing it this year.



Yam Seng. from matrianklw on Vimeo.


Cork Popping. from matrianklw on Vimeo.

Besides having fun toasting and later, posing with the wine bottle, I followed them outside to watch a display of fireworks again. At first, I was getting my hands dirty too considering how long it was since my days of spending near to a thousand ringgit on fireworks. By the way, I only have the guts to stand the kiddies bombs nowadays. I just seem to have lost the ability to withstand deafening explosives anymore. I reckon it must be the age that's to blame and all the years of being dormant from the fireworks. Kinda lost interest in risking my fingers to dynamites after 15, I think. After that, the lights and the motions only sparked interest in me with the camera again. Below, the biggest shot is our best attempt of drawing '2008' with the fireworks, which goes to show, the rest of my attempts were close to mud.



Firecrackers from matrianklw on Vimeo.

Having said that, surprisingly, I still have my favorite shot of the day below. =)


And that pretty much is my celebration for the year of the rat, in a nutshell.

Chinese New Year '08 - Day 3.

So, on day three of our celebrations, things were already toned down. Partly due to the overdose of carbonated drinks, cookies, extravagantly prepared home cooked meals, firecracker smoke and of course, sleep deprivation, we were all pretty bummed up to have to wake up at 10a.m. just to do more visiting again the next day. Plus, with the conscience that holidays were running out and school and work are setting back (for them) could pretty much dampen the celebratory mood. On a short note though, growing up in the family, I've never done anything else on such days except visiting. Really, can't think of any other "family" thing to do. Drinking, gambling and partying with friends like every other regular 18 year olds? Not my cup of tea. Don't have that many friends to start with and also, an idiot with cards. Well, a good boy, I am. Fulfilling filial piety and visiting the elderly seem more appropriate after all on Chinese New Year. 

Broadcasting. from matrianklw on Vimeo.

Anyway, Carina and Adrian, as usual spent the past two nights over at our place - just for the fun of it, in the name sake of 'holiday'. I should mention of course, they were more wrecked than I was when the night before this, both of them could barely keep their eyes peeled when Edmund wanted to watch Bee Movie - which was the only reason why I went to bed quite early too. It's not like we don't meet enough throughout the year, but still, their the closest cousins we can relate too. Besides, it's fun to be hurried up in the morning and queue for the bathroom and trying our very best to color co-ordinate our outfits, no doubt. It's not like we even try that much. It just so happens that all of us had the same color outfits and we just decide to put them on on the same day. We'd be walking out of the room and go, "Hey, ur wearing this color too! High five, man!". Except for one person, of course.

Basically, we only did one house together as both our families had our own plans to carry out and different people to visit. Plus, jie was going back to KL already. After that, not much cam-whoring for me with them. If you haven't noticed already, I barely cam-whore by myself, it's always with somebody and I'm not even hiding it on my drive. There really are no pictures of my smiling by myself. Still, I won't blame you if you're probably sick to your stomach already for seeing so many pictures of me. Oh well... below are some of my favourite shots of the day. 

The black gang!

Chinese New Year '08 - Day 2

Yee Sang. from matrianklw on Vimeo.

So, after discovering (or rather, re-igniting) my passion for cam-whoring and the plain joy of taking photographs, you could bet I just couldn't wait for the 2nd day to take off. As long as traditions go, the 2nd day of our new year is allocated for the maternal side of the family and I was sure it wasn't only our family who kept the tradition alive, seeing that all the aunties and uncles were there alongside with the whole troupe of cousins. The long portrait above pretty much sums mom's siblings up. Being as Malaysians as we are too, what other better things to do when gathered at such an auspicious day but eat and drink? Frankly though, the new year's eve and new year's day itself have been reserved for reunion dinners and lunch with amah (paternal side), so the gathering on the 2nd day is like another version of a reunion dinner lunch meal. A relatively big one too!


Lion Dance '08 from matrianklw on Vimeo.

This year, splendidly enough, apoh managed to arranged a lion dance troupe to grace her home with and to help her usher in the new year and on the 2nd day too! Usually, these troupes couldn't be bothered much to your preferred time and they'd just drop by whenever they can since ours wasn't the only home to be "graced" but apoh somehow managed. I've forgotten though, why we didn't have one last year. Or did we? But anyways, the lion dance was a blast, despite the fact that it wad dancing in the small confines of the apartment. I mean, c'mon, we even drew neighbors and passersby to watch - though it still remains a mystery if their attention was caught by the beating of the drums or the euphoric screams and yells by us cousins. Nonetheless, I had loads of fun recording it on video, instead of sweating my ass off, trying to figure out various ways to avoid the lion dancers' path and still get good still shots.


As traditions are concerned as well, after all the devouring of Hakka (mom is Hakka) Chinese New Year dishes and unnecessary yelling at the lion performance, we'd dutifully visit far-off and almost-forsaken/deserted relatives. The reason being, we only do that once every year and as I said, almost like a tradition already. Even the relatives themselves look forward to our presence. It's pretty apparent from their relief uttering of phrases like, "Wah, this year you all so late only arrive!" or "Wah, I thought you not coming this year lah!" Of course, they only converse in Hakka with apoh. Of course by far/distant/almost-forsaken/deserted, I was talking about houses on top of hills and deep in jungles where electricity comes from a generator, activated only for a few hours in the night and where water source comes staright from the mountains and where daily trips to the market require patience and physical fitness that most city folks don't possess. Still, we've been doing this as far as any of us can recall and thus, every year, we look forward to it - although, I still doubt the sincerity of some who curse under their breath when we have to hike up the rest of the way where vehicles can't access. =P


Fast Drive Down The Hill from matrianklw on Vimeo.


Boom from matrianklw on Vimeo.

And of course, after collecting the red packets and after reaching the point where we've empty out multiple boxes of cold drinks (understandable after the tiring hike under the scorching sun), almost finishing a wide variety of Chinese New Year cookies and delicacies laid out for visitors and leave the jungle with resounding explosions from firecrackers, we part farewell and turn back to mindless, insensible, vain and narcissistic cam-whoring.

Look, I'm barely ashamed anymore!

4 by 4s: They can even do it by themselves!

Posed and candids, how can you not love them?

And here, I would like to introduce Ai Ai, our so called "aunty" according to the family hierarchy, whom after all these years of growing up together, we barely address as aunty. We kind of reached a mutual agreement that to add the address of aunty in front of her name would be tremendously speed her aging process and increase our awkwardness between her, given that she's my age in real life. Thanks to us, now she still looks her age! Of course, from time to time, we do remind ourselves of her status in the family tree through minor jokes we make, especially, when she gives advice - "Oooh! Hail, the aunty speaks!" - stuff like that. Now, the one reason we're all so fond of her is because she's cool with us and our antics. I mean, she's the one who can accompany us till the wee hours of dawn during a sleepover, she's the one who loves shopping trips with us and visits to the movies (she's a good companion for horror movies, by the way!) and she's the one who gets our jokes and the one who cracks jokes! It's truly a wonderful thing to have such a close relationship with someone of a higher level in the family tree. Oh, and did I mention, her real name's Eva (glamorous, ain't it?) - Ai Ai's just stuck with us since we were children.

Below is my favourite shot of the day. It was so random, so pure, so joyful. Photographer: ME.

T-B: Jie, Adrian, Ai, Carina and me

P/S : I'm aware that the are quite a number of videos and it might take some time to load. If you're patient, then wait. But if you aren't, just make sure you don't miss out the 2nd (cause it's fun to watch!) and the 4th (cause it's just really short) videos. Oh, the 3rd video is just to illustrate my point of having relative who live in remote areas of the island.