Happy Chinese ‘Niu’ Year!

My 1st time ever being away from home during chinese new year... the thought of it just makes me feel so .. boooooooo.... =(
Well, it didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it’d be. If it wasn’t for the coincidence that CNY fell on Australia Day, it wouldn’t be this exciting. It’s usually a working day in Australia during CNY, but this year, all the aussies are celebrating this auspicious day with us! Hey~

I had a family reunion dinner with Dai Yee (big aunt), uncle Jason, uncle Michael, aunty Ivy, Christopher, Joshua, Jeremy, their cousin Aaron and a family friend who I’ve met through somewhere else b4, called Joanna. I dun really feel it was a reunion cuz it wasn’t much of a reuniting thing anyways. But it was fun. Good food and we had a few rounds of mah jong and played with some sparklers out in the back yard.

No one counted down with me this time. I made James, Daniel and Esther play chor dai dee with me to get the mood going, while the others emotionlessly wished each other ‘gong hei gong hei’ when it was 12:01. I could recall how crazy it would be in mama’s house. Everyone would stop what they’re doing, countdown together in the living room, then wish everyone happy CNY, and we’d pour tea for mama, while she gives out ang pows. We’d line up for ang pows from our uncles and aunties, and then after the whole happy commotion, we’d go back to what we were doing b4 (playing with cards, mah jong, watching tv, just talking about weird stuff around the dinning table).

I miss home... I miss the atmosphere... I miss my crazy family who’d come up with really weird things to do when we gather.

Anyhow... on CNY day in Aus, I woke up with a major headache. But it all went fine after I went to ikea to buy chairs with Su, Ster and Deb. Then we went to mama and papa Basil’s house to ‘bai lin’. They had so many chinese titbits and Yeoh’s packet drinks!!!! Totally made my day. and it was really cool receiving ang pow from Andrew hahah...

Then we went back to ashok macho and had a massive cook-out. Deb and I rolled the tong yuin. Yih ling and michelle wrapped the wantons. Esther cooked non stop. James and su ling did the deco. That night, we had 11 happy chinese and 1 learned rojak. This dinner made me feel so much better. We had all the chinese cuisines which elevated the oriental celebration. Not forgetting the ‘dong dong dong chiang’ songs that went on and on the whole nite till we could see it flowing out of our ears the next day.

Wish I was home, but am grateful that I’ve friends here who brought home to me.