Chinese New Year 2007

Went back for Chinese New Year on the 14 Feb, via MAS, from Singapore to Penang.

Had taken half day the day before to do some last minute CNY shopping. Didn't have any new pants to wear for CNY, so had to go find something. Went to Carrefour and saw that there were some jeans on sale. $9.90 for a pair of jeans!! I quickly tried them out and bought 2. Bought some undies too.. So at least some new wardrobe, although they are still jeans and t'shirt. At least I could wear them to work.. :)

Thought of resting and helping mum with some cookie making, but in the end, there was 2 translation jobs to be rushed, and one of them consists of translating 34 pages. So I was in front of the PC most of the nites. And somehow the PC at home acted up, refusing to boot up and had to be coerced into working properly with multiple reboots. In the end only managed to make some peanut cookies and fry some keropoks.

This year, we went to 4th uncle's house for reunion dinner on the 30th nite, as always. Bro managed to take leave and join us this year. Not all uncles and their family turned up. Uncle No.3, Auntie No.3, Tze Sen & Wife, Tze Chee & Wife, Uncle No.8, Auntie No.8, Li Zhong and Uncle No.10. Uncle No.7 and family came around 10pm. In fact, Uncle No.1, Auntie No.1 and Ming Hui drove up from JB. They reached Uncle No.4's house at around 10.30pm.

The first day of the lunar new year, we were treated dinner buffet at the Renaissance Hotel by Uncle No.7. Auntie No.6, Wen Wei, Uncle No.9, Auntie No.9, Jie Fang, Jie Ming, Uncle No.11 and Auntie No.11 were all present. In total, there were 29 of us. It was a rare to have so many of us present. The only ones absent were my Sis, Ying Wei and Auntie No.5 & family. After the dinner we went back to Uncle No.7's house to chit chat. The kids were dully entertained by the Nintendo Wii that Tze Chee brought from US. While the adults chatted and laughed. We must be very noisy.. Imagine 29 person in one house, all talking and laughing at the same time.. :)

The second day was slightly slower. We didnt go anywhere during the day. Dinner, as usual, was a banquet hosted by Uncle No.8, with Auntie No. 8 being the chef of the day. Her cooking was not just delicious, but very well presented too.. Again, we all chatted and laughed.. It was really a bonding session....

The 3rd day, we had to rush back to Taiping and then to Bukit Merah, cos Uncle No.1 (mum's side) was having a get-together makan session too. After missing several years of his makan session, with Bro back from Japan, there is no excuse for us to miss this year's makan. So we made it to Bukit Merah. And frankly, it was about time for a meet-up. All my cousins have grown so much that I could barely recognise them!! Especially those in their teens. The last time I saw them, they were still kids running around, and now, look at them, all grown up, some already finished their secondary education!! Time really flies.

4th day was madness. As Bro had to catch his plane back to Japan at 11am, we had to be in the airport by 9am, that means we need to drive down from Taiping latest 4am! As we reached home from the makan session the nite before rather late, we barely had 3 hours of sleep!! In the end, we made it safely to the KLIA and sent Bro off. Then we had to make a trip to Uncle No.4's house to pick up a relative who just arrived from China and sent her to another relative's house in Taiping. It was very trying and tiring time.

Day 5 and 6 was spend recuperating, before I headed back to Spore on the Nite of the 6th. Reached Singapore safely at around 5:30am of 24 Feb. And that is the CNY 'adventure' of 2007...