Chinese New Year - Around The Corner.

*sighs*. it's the time of the year again, Chinese New Year. everyone i know would be busy preparing for the day. whether its shopping, baking, cooking, decorating or earning money (so that there'll be ang paus), this is the time of the year where all these stuff come alive. what i know is, mom and dad are really busy during CNY. mom has been busy a month ago. busy making kuih kapit, "toh-tau-kuih" (peanut cookies), ribbon cookies and her best potato chips. it's such a waste that i don't have a camera to take photographs and show you what i'm talking about. mom makes the best potato chips, ribbon cookies, kuih kapit and "toh-tau-kuih". honestly, she does!! her colleauges are making orders to buy from her, that's why she's making so much of them. we don't have a business or anything. her colleagues offered money for her cookies and chips. her kuih kapit is strictly not for sale but for giving away to relatives during CNY itself. it's been a tradition. i'll just call it merrymaking. anyway, when friends and other family members ask for the recipes from mom, she won't say a word. she got the recipes from my great-grandmother, i think. i hope she passes this down to my wife or grace. LOL. i'll keep the tradition going. it's really good. i'm usually the one who gets sick at this time of the year, cause i'll always be the first one who tries all of the production. and i'll usually get down with fever and sore throat. they're either fried or baked, so chances of a sore throat are obviously high. LOL.

and during this this time of the year also, we should be rather busy shopping. getting new clothes and stuff. but not this year, because of the tight budget after the house renovation. but i still have new clothes!! LOL. cause the chinese people believe that wearing new apparel on CNY brings good luck. CNY is all about luck, if you think of it. there's so many do's and dont's just because one wants to get luck and not push it away during CNY. LOL. i really am fascinated with these kinda stuff. for instance, we're not allowed to sweep the floor on the 1st day of CNY, caause we believe that you're sweeping away good luck. another one, it's best to wear red on the 1st day of CNY also. cause in mandarin, red is called as "hong" and it rhymes with the hokkien word "ong" which means good luck. LOL. funny, yet, we believe.

usually, for me, i'd be busy decorationg houseS, by now. i'd start with my own house, and then amah's house and then poh poh's house. i just find decorationg alot of fun!! especially with all the reds you get to see during CNY. so bright and radiant. but this year, i wasn't much in the mood for decorating. maybe because i'm in a new renovated home and living it as the way it is would be best for me and my family. so, no decorations this year. and it the year of the dog this year, and decorations of canines and dogs are selling like cup cakes. try visiting the morning or night market at this time, and you'll find yourself face to face with uncountable number of red shops selling home decorations. but we still can enjoy the other decorations by our friendly neighbours on their balconies. it's funny, the western people see red as anger but the chinese people see red as good luck. LOL.

on the day before the New year of the Chinese Lunar Calender, all families are supposed to get together on around the table for a reunion dinner. or that's how i was thought and brought up. it's very very very important to the old folks, namely, amah. but through the years, quarrells and unforgiveness has led to a broken family. i don't wanna talk about that cause that itself would have taken the space of a whole blog. but it's definitely not mom's side and not my family itself. so no, the only people having a reunion dinner with amah is my family and dad's big brother (he comes himself and doesn't bring his family). it's sad. but that's the way it has been since the last half decade. oh well, amah has gotten kind of used to it anyways.