February 9 2005

Too Busy Having Fun

Hello ... Happy Chinese New Year ... Gong Xi Fatt Chai ... Gong Hey Fatt Choy ... Selamat Tahun Baru Cina.

Wow, another year. First year to spend CNY in Kuala Lumpur since 1996 (the year when I left for LA for study). We had so much fun at the reunion dinner at my uncle's new bungalow with more than 5000sqft of living area. Very big house he has there. Three storeys high with 7 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. Very nice place indeed. But is it too big for me as it is too difficult to maintain without any helpers. Hopefully, their Indonesian maid will arrive soon to help my aunt with the chores.

We (all cousins, aunts and uncles) had steamboat dinner at this new place. Some of my aunts and uncles came down from Penang (which is about 3.5 hours drive on the toll way). Two tables. Many varieties of fishballs, vegetables, and seafood too. Also my aunty's famous home fried chicken wings and curry chicken. We started dinner around 8pm. After dinner, some of them started playing 3 players mahjong. We waited till 10:30 for Josef to come to start taking family pictures. He has a regular BIG camera, not digital. May be a 35mm camera. Anyway, guess who else brought their cameras? Me, Joann and Joey ... well we are the siblings ... and we each have our own camera. Amazing.

After taking pictures of varieties positions and poses, we started playing with firework which is supposely illegal. But we played it anyway. At midnight, we shouted Happy Chinese New Year to every body ... and my uncle served champagne. I didn't drink. I was too busy taking pictures of every one. After the champagne, my uncle took out his red packet holder and gave all of us each a red packet with money inside. We also called this as 'Lai See' or 'Ang Pow'.

It was a very wonderful evening. We all had so much fun. I came back home around 1pm and didn't go to sleep till around 4am busy uploading the pictures to my photo album and creating a VCD for my uncle to view.

Will be busy putting things together now to prepare for my trip back to LA. Will be leaving in less than two weeks. That is fast that I've been back here almost a month already by now. Will need to start gathering the things I want to bring back to LA soon. =)

Happy Chinese New Year again to too ... May good health and good fortune be with you and your family this Rooster year.