happy new year

its that time of the year again, when the scales tip to one end and the belts are loosened and the throats get sore. it's lunar new year. spring festival. chun jie. whatever you call it, it's a time for eating eating and more eating.

we started off with a reunion dinner with mum's family at coca at the concourse. a la carte buffet means too much food. plus my cousing knew the manager so we had free siobah (v good btw) and thai dessert. i'll sum it all up by saying - i cant stand fish glue. i mean what part of fish glue (fr the way it looks to the name it's been given) is appetising???
went home, watched tv and had a nice bottle of concha y toro late harvest sauvignon blanc. nice. a little sweet but not overpoweringly sweet. and about $18 fr your neighbourhood ntuc.

anyway, the next day, dad's family came over to our house where mum me and sis had prepared nasi kuning, rendang, beehoon, grilled chicken, mixed vege, vietnamese ricepaper rolls, and some various stuff. and then it was onto my uncle's house (after the relatives finally budged fr our sofas - they were too intent on watching this really bad chinese movie about separated orphans. sobsob story with really bad dubbed voices and a real cheesy song) where there was more snacks, mochi, lapis the like.
and then dinner at my aunt's house where mum's mum had cooked her yummy kongbah (yes more pork) and chicken curry and not so scrumptious stomach soup (like my cousin said 'i cant stomach another's stomach') and there was barley gingko nut soup after. and again of course pressured to eat fr the mound of snacks at the living room. watched a bit of american idol after the cousins failed to get hold of tickets to go see constantine. went home felt guilty. ate some fruits.

day 2 began with lunch at charming garden with the farrer court group of friends (four families kids all the same age -23 and 25 - whom ive known for practically my whole life and this was one of the rare years where everyone was in town for cny. jokes about childhood pranks were inevitable but this year we had a new joke - how one of the meimeis (younger sister in Mandarin) who just got married last year and is now 5 mths pregnant, shld now sit at the grownups table and hand out angbaos. and how her son wld have to babysit the rest of our (future) children because he wld be so much older than ours). good yusheng (mostly cos it wasnt overpowered with ginger) decent food except that seating was crowded and after the not v good eefu noodles, the waitress dumped the hargao on the table. it of course wasnt finished cos everyone knows that noodles come last!

and it was onto aunt's house in bishan where chinchow and various other snacks awaited. next was uncle's house in boon lay. (this is what happens every year btw) and to the long awaited feast. my uncle, an ntu lecturer, really shld open his own restaurant. he's fr hongkong and he whips up many mean cantonese dishes!
we had sharksfin soup (well at least the others had. i dont drink sharksfin soup for humanitarian reasons) fish, beef stew (nao lam), beancurd, teriyaki chicken, eefu noodles, cantonese carrot cake, grilled prawns, cold dish with jellyfish that he made, asparagus, mushrooms with dried scallop, fresh scallop with some delicious herby sauce, some cantonese style stewed pork with sweet potatoes, and a couple others i cant remember. i have to put up the pictures soon. there were so many i didnt know where to begin! and after all that goodness there was orhnee for dessert! with pumpkin and gingko nuts, just like my grandma used to make it. oh and some ice wine as well. sigh...
i was so full i was so sleepy but i was so satisfied.

it's once a year after all. altho i do wish he'd just go into cooking full-time!

oh and then the next day (fri) i went back to work and since there wasn't much to eat around the office went with some ex-colleagyes to tp central and we had roast meat (duck chicken char siew sio bah) suayjiao tang (i know i'm screwing up this spelling but i cant seem to figure out how to spell it) and kailan. they bought roti boys back but i dun like the sound of roti boys (all that cream...). besides i had brought some cny cookies fr home.

at night, dashed off to hv to meet sec sch friends to go wala2. realised i didnt like the place much esp since now they're making u queue up to buy drinks downstairs before making yr way upstairs. plus dun like eic v much altho they do decent jobs with their songs. i just cant stand them! so i left when they were starting second set. headed to rouge to catch the last few songs that electrico was playing (mostly cos a friend put me on the list for free entry plus he actually had reserved a table) and stayed until 2pm, reluctant to face up to the fact that i had to work the next morning at 930. had had several drinks but didnt seem to have any effect on me! so i was kinda bored. anyway i wasnt intending to get high. but its just a way to sorta chill out and not think about work.


managed to wake up at 8am shower change make some breakfast and get to work to start on my story. needed coffee.. but not entirely desperate for caffeine. i think im getting too old for this. and now i'm trying to (er besides writing this blog that is) figure out who to call for story i'm doing. ridiculous story that's actually a revision of something written last month. i mean, last month!

Listening to: Bright Eyes