CNY 2008

CNY 2008 has been a very different CNY. I think I had felt more excited about CNY during my varsity years (even though during that time, CNY holidays were almost always spent slogging over exam preparations).

Nonetheless, the following are some pluses and minuses of CNY 2008 worth remembering.

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Spring-Cleaning

About 2-3 weeks before CNY, R and I had started to plan our schedule for spring-cleaning and preparations for CNY.

And because these days, our weekends are always so very hectic, it had been particularly difficult to try to fit everything in during the 2-3 weeks to CNY. So, everntually, we agreed that we would put aside the 2 weekends before CNY to run all the errands (eg gifts distribution) and grab all the various 'cannot-buy-earlier' stuff needed for CNY. So, over those 2 weekends, we dashed about during the 2-hour breaks we had while WY and WF were attending their classes and completed those errands and bought whatever CNY goodies we wanted (mostly for giving away as gifts) from a few selected places like AMK and TP.

Unlike past years, we could not do any spring-cleaning during those weekends. In the end, we took 2 days of annual leave to take care of whatever packing, washing and scrubbing that needed to be done.

To summarise, R and I accomplished about 95% of the chores during those 2 back-breaking days (in 12-hour shifts for each of us on each of these 2 days)! We even managed to arrange for piano-tuning and aircon servicing on the morning on those 2 days. For me, the most 'memorable' of this take-annual-leave-to-spring-clean exercise was having my dinner at 10pm each day.

Reunion Dinner

As has been the case ever since YP and I got married, we had our Reunion Dinner on the Saturday immediately before CNY. The only difference this year was that the venue has been changed to AMK. Before we set off to AMK, we had packed Father's dinner (same fare) for him to have at home. Mother also prepared a similar pack for OL.

The food was a potluck of fried noodles and other dishes. Mother fried the noodles and got ready the abalone and some fishcake stuff, which we brought to CP's place using our thermal pot and other pots. The load turned out to be quite a handful even for 3 adults.

CP cooked her signature sharksfin soup, which has been the universal favourite amongst all the boys. (CP said she had spent one whole hour to prepare the bean sprouts for the soup - we couldn't understand why she had to take so long a time for this seemingly-simple task?). CP also steamed a fish which she declared, to the surprise of everyone, was not to be eaten - she had heard over the radio that the traditional custom has it that a fish must be kept from the 'outgoing year' through the 'new year' so that there would be abundance of fortunes in the 'new year'!

YP cooked some satay and fried 油条 stuffed with fish paste. She also prepared a big serving of stir-fried prawns. I (took an easier approach!) bought a chicken from a very popular hawker stall near my office. For dessert, we had longan-jelly cocktail and agar-agar.



After dinner, Mother took a nap whilst the boys took to the computer and GB. The rest of us sat and chatted and watched some TV programme. CP and I exchanged a few CNY decorations and I also gave CNY decoration to YP. As we did so, CP, YP and I tried to finalise our schedule for CNY visiting amongst ourselves.

Eve of CNY Eve

I always love to make a trip to the wet market after dinner on the eve of the CNY Eve. On this evening, the market would be bustling with aunties and uncles and throngs of families with children young and old. It would be the 'one last chance' to grab whatever that we have forgotten to buy for CNY earlier.

This year, I visited the 'special evening market' with WY. We bought some 发糕 and the soft and chewy 吉红 during our leisurely walk to the market and to the CNY pasar malam at Geylang East. I also managed to get some table cloths which I had neglected to get earlier.

Our star-buy that evening, however, were some CNY decorations, including 3 sets of couplets (3 sets for $2) and a 'rat with waving arm' decoration (50 cents)! We ended our 1-hour jalan-jalan with a well-deserved rest over 2 cans of chrysanthemum tea at the market stall.

Before we went to bed, WY and I put up our CNY decorations.



Eve of CNY

R and I had to report for half-day work on the Eve of CNY. WF also went to CH School for his CNY celebrations. WY went home directly after the 2-hour session of CNY celebrations in KHS.

WY and WF were assigned the task to prepare the candy trays. As expected, WY 'bossed' WF around a bit but other than the occasional 'complaint' about 哥哥 bossing him around, WF went about quite gladly doing his part to fill up the trays with the nougats, mentos, marshmellows, preserved fruits etc. Naturally, both boys excitedly 'pinched' a little of these candies, too, as they went about their job.

For R and I, the afternoon was spent doing the last 5% of the chores outstanding. We finally completed everything by 6:30pm, after which we had our dinner that Mother had cooked before she went out with her friends to Chinatown. After the quick and simple dinner, we took our showers and got the boys ready to go to R's father's house. By the time we set off, it was almost 8pm - sigh.

Reunion Dinner at R's father's house is almost always quite boring because there is nothing to do apart from watching the flickering TV screen. Somehow, the aerial reception at his house is always perpetually bad, so in between, I spent time sending and replying to sms greetings received on my hp instead.

WF (who had called this 'Dinner' as 'Supper' because it is always taken so late at night!) enjoyed climbing up and down the internal staircase together with the children of R's sister, bettern than the food. WY, on the other hand, spent much of the time helping to cook (boil and grill) the fishballs, sliced meat etc for whoever wanted/needed them.

We left the place after 10pm and reached home at about 10:30pm. On the way, we tried to check out the Car-Wash services at the various petrol stations, only to realise that there were queues of at least 20 cars or so at each of these! So, we decided that since we weren't going out the next day anyway, we would skip the car-wash on the Eve.

Mother was already relaxing at home and enjoying the CNY Variety Show by the time we got back. She excitedly shared with us how she and her friend had gone to the very crowded Chinatown to find many many CNY goodies on sale! She eventually bought 3 pieces of 台湾年糕 (see the boxes stacked up high in the picture below) and 2 big bags of 台湾"麻子"(muah-chee) at incredibly low prices!

The prices had been slashed so much that these very happy ladies resolved that in future, they would trod to Chinatown only on the CNY Eve to enjoy these steals!

R, WY, WF and I had our quick showers before joining Mother to watch the CNY Variety Show briefly. WY and WF took to the computer soon after whilst I added the final touches to the CNY Couplet-gifts intended for CP and YP (which would be presented by WY and WF when we visited their houses). R did his own stuff in-between, too.

Luckily, I had already gotten the red packets ready a few nights before and so, I managed to get to bed this year at just before 2am.

First Day of CNY

First Day of CNY was spent at home. Mother had already woken up and gotten many things ready by the time I got out of bed. In fact, I was awoken by the aroma of the braised sea cucumber and the braised pork (for kong-ba-bao)!

R and WY had already gotten up for breakfast, too. And so, to avoid being 'scolded' by Mother for not getting up earlier, I quickly washed up and changed to help in the other preparation work eg getting the 肉干 ready etc.

I assigned the task of getting the drinks chilled, to R and WY. So they took out the big, clean pail and arrange the assortment of canned drinks (which included assorted beer, non-alcoholic beer, fizzy F&N orange, Mug Rootbeer, Coca Cola etc) and packet drinks into it. Later R added the ice-packs into the pail.

After Mother has finished her cooking, I brought the lunch which she had packed for OL and for Father, downstairs. Mother cleared the kitchen while I was gone, so that I could take over the kitchen to fry the prawn rolls (the only cooking task I had been assigned to do for lunch that day).

When I reached downstairs, I first hung OL's pack at her gate. Then I pressed her door-bell before turning to make my way to Father's place. "Ding-dong ding-dong, lor! Ding-dong, ding-dong, lor!" I heard OL exclaim loudly in an obviously excited voice as she noisily shuffled to open her door.

"Ah-bor, ah! You come already, ah?! Aiyoh, so big a packet you have brought! Aiyoh, so big a packet....." OL continued in her excited voice. But by then, I had already started to unlock the padlock on Father's gate, so I did not turn back to reply OL; I only heard her open her gate and then close her door after she brought the packet into her house.

I handed Father his lunch and the red packet which I had prepared for him. I also handed him the red packet which HA had requested R to help pack for Father. His skin looked better than when I last saw him.

Father asked as he took HA's red packet, "What time is HA coming back? Is he back already?"

I was most puzzled and just said, "Ha?! HA is not coming back this year, mah!"

After I told him that we would bring his dinner later, I left to hurry back home to fry the prawn rolls.

The frying took me almost an hour. By the time CP and YP etc arrived, I was just about to finish cleaning up the kitchen. And so, whilst I had my shower, they got the 鱼生 ready.



Shortly after, we all tossed the 鱼生 without waiting for AhYee, Uncle Frankie and their children since they had told us to proceed if they were not here by the time we were ready. Then we tucked into our lunch of fried beehoon, braised sea cucumber, kong ba-bao, steamed fish, prawn rolls etc etc.

AhYee, Uncle Frankie, Ah Fai and Marie arrived about half an hour later and joined us for lunch. After that, it was the usual chit-chat amongst the adults and computer and GB time amongst the boys. AhYee also complimented my 'garden' - the new addition called 万紫千红 was a CNY gift from CP.



AhYee and Uncle Frankie proceeded to OL's place after they had watched WF's 2007 Year-End CH School Concert. Briefly after they were gone, we realised that they had forgotten to take with them a handphone. So we quickly contacted them to return to retrieve it.

When AhYee returned, she laughingly told us, "When we asked OL whether she had finished eating her lunch which you had packed for her earlier, OL said no one brought any lunch for her, leh? But OL went on to say that your mother has already moved to a new 5-room flat which she had just bought in AMK; the new flat has also been so nicely renovated!"

Ha?! We all laughed at this 'new flat' idea - although I didn't find the part of OL's joke about not having received lunch, funny at all.

YP, BK, WS and WP left after dinner. Soon after clearing the dishes, R, WY, WF and I also set off for R's father's place. CP returned to AMK by herslef later.

Our visit to R's father's place was a very brief one. Like the evening before, there was nothing to do except ogle at the very blur and 'fizzy' TV screen. I watched part of Stephen Chow's very incredible "Kung-Fu Soccer" movie there.

By the time we got home, it was almost 11pm.

2nd Day of CNY

I felt more relaxed on the morning of the 2nd Day of CNY - apaprt from shredding the vegetables for the 鱼生 that we were going to have for dinner at CP's house, I didn't have to do any cooking, mah! So, the only cooking to be done was Mother's frying of the beehoon and another pot of braised sea cucumber which were to be brought to CP's house.

Just as I thought that that would be all there was to our 2nd Day's programme, WS called to ask if we would be interested to watch jack Neo's "Ah Long Pte Ltd" comedy at the cinema at Kallang. Naturally, WY and WF leapt with excitement at the idea and when R checked with Mother, she said ok. And so, BK and WS proceeded to book the tickets for everyone except CP, who couldn't join us because she had planned to visit a colleague that morning.

So, we tweaked our plan a little and brought all the food to AMK before making our way to the cinema at Kallang. We met up with YP, BK, WS and WP there. WF was most disappointed to find out that the popcorn machine had broken down and no popcorn was available. Nonetheless, he shared some nachos with WY and was happy to discover this 'new' theatre-going snack!

The comedy was ok - although the plot was rather frivolous and of not much substance, Jack Neo's classic way of poking fun at some aspects of Singaporean way of life and at the government was so funny that all of us laughed so hilariously almost throughout the show! Even WF was tickled by the very funny antics of the characters, particularly when Mark Lee was thrown off several times by Fann Wong onto an armchair on their wedding night!

We all proceeded to CP's house as planned after the show. CP's place was so richly decorated that when AhYee and Uncle Frankie came, Uncle Frankie complimented, "Woah! this is the most beautifully decorated house, leh!" Some of the decorations have been handcrafted!



After Mother and YP helped to arrange the food etc, we tossed the 鱼生 and started on dinner.



The highlight of the evening's programme was the 红包 Game which CP had devised for us all. She had declared at dinner, "每个人，不管老或者少，都要参加这个红包‘有奖比赛’，红包奖金由＄2起，大奖是＄50！每个人都会赢奖！"

So, everybody was quite curious about this 红包 Game. Uncle Frankie and AhYee, especially, had not been aware that there would such a game and thought the idea very interesting.

When CP had announced some time ago that she would host a quiz at her place during CNY and correct answers to the quiz questions would fetch cash prizes, WS and WP had enthusiastically started to prepare themselves for the 红包 Game. As CP had said that the quiz questions would be based on CNY and CP, the boys had faithfully collated data and details such as the date of CP's birthday, the address of CP's place etc. From what I understand, WP even sought some info from the street directory for his 'research'!



After dinner, therefore, we started the 红包 Game. Mother, being the most senior of us all present, took the 1st question: What is CP's house unit number?

Not unexpectedly, Mother didn't know the answer! And so, she sought 'Helpline' and had to share half of her prize with the 'Helpline', who was eventually WP.

Uncle Frankie was next to go. The question picked by him was a very simple one: What is a mandarin orange called in Chinese? Everyone paused for a moment before Uncle Frankie gave his answer excitedly: "橘子， 橘子!" He earned himself the prize of $10.

Then it was AhYee's turn. Out of sheer luck, she picked the 红包 containing the Jackpot prize of $50. She almost couldn't take away the prize, however, because the question required her to count the exact number of 福 characters which could be seen in CP's living hall and she nearly miscounted them! At this point, the 红包 Game started to become really exciting! Hahahaha....

BK's question was a very straighforward one, but he also couldn't answer without 'Helpline' (this time, WS)! The question was: What is Mother's full name in Chinese?

The next question, which picked by YP, was so incredibly easy that I think it was meant for WF: How many dark brown doors are there in CP's house? Ha?! Hahahaa....

The question that I had to answer was: What is the name of the fruit shown on the print of CP's new bedsheets? Answer was: Tomato!! I suspect that this question had been prepared for WF, too.

R picked the next question, which turned out to be: How many sets of windows are there in CP's house? The final answer which earned him $10 was 6!

Then, the boys took turns to answer the rest of the questions - each had 3 go's. Questions asked included: What is CP's favourite CNY snack? What is the name of the public park nearest to CP's place? What are CP, YP and LP's names in Chinese? Identify the spelling error on the tags which had been on CP's 3 potted orchids. What does the CNY decoration on CP's main door mean? (5 福 characters = 五福临门) Express 2 CNY greetings which begin with a character that sounds like 四 or 事 etc etc.



In the end, each of the boys got an average of $40+ which CP declared may be spent by the boys on gifts of their own choices. Although WS was rather disappointed that the Jackpot prize had been picked even before the boys had their go at the quiz questions, generally everyone felt very good after the 红包 Game. (CP played yet another similar 红包 Game with her colleagues who visited her on the 4th Day of CNY.)

The pizza which YP had also ordered before we started on the 红包 Game arrived soon after. AhYee offered her Jackpot prize as payment for the pizza. Then we all also tucked into our very refreshing dessert of longan jelly cocktail and ice-creams. Mmmmm....

By the time we made our way home, it was well past 10pm. When we arrived home, WF started to sing the very funny 'Ah Long' song (to the tune of '客人来'): 阿隆来，看爸爸。爸爸不在家，我请阿隆先坐下，再敬一杯茶。Hahahaa.....

3rd Day of CNY

R had to go to work on this Saturday. For the rest of us, it was a leisurely morning for us at home on the 3rd day of CNY. Lunch was to be at YP's place. Dinner would be at AhYee's place.

Mother would give that lunch and dinner a miss because she was going with her friends on a group day-tour to the new Changi T3 and the Flower Festival at Sentosa.

R returned from office before noon. Shortly after, we set off to get CP from AMK and we all then proceeded to YP's place.

We arrived at YP's place at almost 1pm. Lunch was a relatively simple fare of fried Hokkien noodles and some dishes cooked by YP. This made a lot of sense because: (1) we had been feasting for both the 1st and 2nd days of CNY; (2) there were just less than 10 of us; and (3) we were going to have dinner at AhYee's place.

WS and WP had to go for their EL tuition from 2pm to 4pm. So during that time, WY and WF had their hands quite firmly on the XBox 360 which BK graciously helped them set up. The boys had a whale of time giggling over their Lego Star Wars battles!

R spent almost the entire time fixing some rams which he had been meaning to install for WS on his PC while CP, YP and I chatted. YP's knee was still no good, so I suggested that perhaps, she should start consulting the ortho doctors at the hospital instead of just relying on TCM 铁打 only.

After WS and WP returned, the boys continued to play some games etc on the PC, XBox etc. I am not sure what else everybody did then, because I soon fell asleep on YP's sofa...... only to be awoken by their laughter over my supposedly loud snores much later when they were almost ready to go off to AhYee's house!

We set off to AhYee's house at almost 5:30pm. On the way there, I suddenly remembered that I had wanted to place some bets on 4D. So after dropping CP, WY and WF off, R and I quickly took off to the Caltex petrol station nearby to place the bets. We also tried our luck in some 'quick picks' on Toto.

YP had brought a set of 鱼生 to AhYee's place for lo-hei. So we had that for a starter to a feast of fried rice (WY's favourite since the time when AhYee came over to help us out every day during Mother's trip to CH sveral years ago), braised sea cucumber, lotus roots soup (with fishballs specially for fishball-lover WF), curry chicken, prawn rolls etc.

AhYee also served us plenty of desserts including agar-agar, white fungus with gingko-nuts soup, cut fruits etc. WY and WF tried the CNY cookies to their hearts' content despite my reminders not to take too much of these CNY goodies lest they become 'heaty' or start getting a sore throat (or for WF, a nose-bleed).

We left for home at about 9:30pm. After sending CP back to AMK, we reached home only about 10:30pm, all exhausted and 'sticky'. The boys went to bed soon after their showers. R and I did the same, too, after Mother shared about her day's outing to T3 and Sentosa.

Mother said that T3's atrium area was very 'glassy' and because the roof is also made of glass, the entire place looked very spacious but extremely glaring in the hot afternoon sun. She and her friends had some food at the food centre at T3 and they found themselves paying $4.50 for a miserable serving of noodles and $2.10 for a cup of hot beverage.

The Flower Festival at Sentosa was quite a letdown, according to Mother. She said the flowers looked ordinary and there was so thick a crowd everywhere that at some spots, she and her friends couldn't even be bothered to queue to get up to view some flower arrangements. I can understand this - crowds, especially of rowdy children and kiasu adults/senior citizens, never fail to be a mood-damper.

4th Day of CNY

WY and WF had to attend their EL lessons at LW in the afternoon. Although my initial plan was to get WY to do some revision in the morning, we never proceeded with any work in the morning. We all simply had a leisurely breakfast and then got ready for lesson.

In the afternoon, while waiting for WY and WF to be dismissed from class, I checked WY's completed worksheets which the teacher at KHS had assigned for the CNY weekend. The teachers are crazy, I think, to expect the children to complete tonnes of these worksheets - don't they realise that the children would (need to) take a break from school work for during the CNY celebrations?! Anyway, the marking kept me occupied during the 2-hour wait at LW School.

Meanwhile, R pored over a book on Xi-an, China, which he had borrowed from the National Library. The overview of Xi-an would help us understand better and be able to prepare better, he thinks, for WY's overseas trip to this city in May this year. WY is looking forward to the trip which is part and parcel of the Bi-Culterual Education Programme (BICEP) that he is currently in. I am not sure if he can manage on his own (without us) - but the school has explained that parents will not be abllowed to go along for this 'immersion learning'. R thinks WY can handle the trip but we must brief WY about security and safety issues.

Unlike other Sundays where we would bring the boys for a simple dinner at the food court, we hurried home immediately after classes were dismissed. We only stopped by the supermarket to grab a roasted chicken home for dinner with Mother. We were scheduled to bring Mother and her friend to their 台湾八大巨星 Concert at Suntec City at 6pm.

So, after dinner, we all went out again. When we reached Suntec City, I brought the 2 elderly lady-fans of 王志贤, the male lead-star of the Tiwanese serial 意难忘 to the Concert venue whilst R went with WY and WF to park the car. On the way to the concert hall, we saw that most of the concert-goers were similar elderly ladies (some had even come with their grandchildren), all eager to meet and watch their stars perform 'live'. Mother took to our suggestion to use the binoculars in case she wanted to 'zoom in' at the stage. I left Mother and her friend to queue to enter into the concert hall after briefly pointing out to them the way to the exit and how they could walk to take the taxi or MRT train after the Concert ended.

R and I then proceeded to walk the boys to the perennial 春到河畔贺新年 River HongBao Carnival at the Esplanade Park. When we arrived, WF became so intrigued by the kiddy rides that we ended up splurging about $15 over one ride on a car-train and one ride (with WY) on a bump-car. Given that the carnival comes only once a year and the boys had quite a lot of fun on the rides, I think it was ok to splurge the $15 at the kiddy stations, lah.

As we strolled along the rows of stalls at the Carnival, I noticed that most of the stalls were selling food items. There were at least 6-8 stall offering some Taiwanese snacks - not really authentic ones, even. Then there were also a handful selling things like Ramle burgers - huh?! Why Ramle burgers for CNY Carnival?!

The stalls showcasing some CNY-themed stuff, eg CNY decorations and clothes were minimal. The sculptures featuring the 12 animals of the Chinese Horoscope were displayed as usual although this time, they were wire-meshed ones. WY took some pictures of these wire-meshed sculptures and of the towering 财神爷 God of Fortune.

Overall, the quality of the Carnval has deteriorated since the last time we visited - that was last year, lah. And as R and I agreed later, this yearly Carnival is due for a revamp or maybe even a total overhaul, soon. Otherwise, we would probably give it a miss next year.

On our walk back to Suntec City, WY and I spotted a roadside 'illegal' makeshift stall selling some intersting illuminated toys. From this stall, we bought a Gleam Ball for $10 (2 packs of batteries included).

Then as we hurried through the underpass, we saw, to our dismay, many parts of the walls to staircases and on some ramps in the atrium of the underpass, badly damaged. The tiles had been cracked and chipped and in some parts, sharp, broken tiles could be seen. These would be very dangerous for toddlers and young children of about WF's build, I think, since they could easily reach and cut the children at their eye-level.

WY asked me why the tiles were so damaged and had been left to remain. I shrugged and said, these were probably the doings of skateboarders-wannabes (we could see many of those nothing-better-to-do teenaged youngsters not too distant from us, holding their skateboards and shouting and swearing away in their language). WY pointed out the 'No Skateboarding' sign on the wall and commented, "So the sign is not working."

We soon joined R and WF at Haagen Daz at Suntec City. WF was happily enjoying his Cookied-N-Cream cone. WY also got himself a cone. I took a single scoop (R didn't want any). After we downed the ice-creams, we set off for home.

After our showers, WY got ready his school bag and we also packed WF's bags. And that marked the end of the main CNY festivities for this extra-long 4-day CNY break we all had from school and work.

5th Day of CNY

The start of the 'new' working Rat's Year was so-so. Some of my colleagues and I exchanged mandarin oranges. I also gave a 红包 of $4 to each of the clerks who sometimes help to do the typing for one part of my work. My colleague also gave 2 红包 to me for WY and WF.

Apart from these, there was nothing really unusual in the office. I took the 封印 sticker off my laptop, of course.

I took half a day's leave to kick-start CL revision with WY in the afternoon. We managed to complete the planned revision.

6th Day of CNY

Work in the office was as usual, nothing out of the ordinary. Back at home, CP went through with WY his daily homework and revised with him pointers to note for Science practical tests - WY's Science practical test was scheduled for the following morning.

I sat through with WF as he completed his written work.

7th Day of CNY

Usually, on this 人日, my boss would treat my colleagues and I to lunch. At lunch, we would 捞鱼生 and engage in some small-talk over nothing. This has been a yearly routine since I joined my current office more than a decade ago.

This year, however, my boss had told us that she would buy us lunch on another day because a recently-promoted colleague (now a section head) in another section was buying lunch for the whole of our Division's management. And so, my colleague (who had earlier booked a table in our usual restaurant nearby) called some of our peers from other departments together for 'our own' lunch.

As it would turn out to be, the promoted colleague's lunch treat was at the same restaurant as ours. So we resolved to ensure that we would 'eat quickly and leave quickly'.

But alas, our food was delayed for such an unusually long time that the 1st dish we ordered was served only at 1:45pm! Of course we were rather upset but we tried to keep our cool and enjoyed the food anyway. As we tucked into the dishes, our colleague who was seated facing the other table had to keep 'reporting' to the rest of us, the progress at the other table.... Hahaha, it was quite exciting although given a choice, all of us would have preferred to savour our food 'in peace' at a more leisurely pace.

Dessert was finally served at 2:15pm or so. At this point, we thought to ourselves - oh, man! Surely, this time, we would be done for because our lunch hour is from 1pm to 2pm! And so, we rushed though our steaming-hot dessert as fast as we could.... then suddenly, our 'reporter' colleague burst out, "Aha! We are not late, leh! Look, they are still all seated and waiting for their dessert! There, there, there! Their dessert just came!"

Instinctively, everyone of us turned to look at that table. "Heng ah!" one of us cheered aloud, to our laughter! "Anyway, better hurry, ah. Scar-ly they also swallow very quickly their hot, hot dessert," someone at our table warned.

And so, we gulped down the last spoonfuls of our dessert and sprinted back to the office in under 5 minutes. We spotted my boss returning to the office about 10 minutes after we had gotten back. Phew!

In the evening, I asked WY how his Science practical test had been. He said it was ok. Then, out of curiosity (because I have never found out how their Science practical tests are carried out), I asked WY what questions there had been.

WY explained that 4 stations were set up. At each station, the children had to carry out the instructions (eg placement of items) and complete the assigned task, including any recording (eg observations of phenomena) and answering the questions (eg explaining why the phenomena occur) put forth at the station. Each child had to go through all the 4 stations.

Sigh, I think they are pushing the kids too hard, too fast and too early these days. But then, the System is another story.....

8th and 9th Days of CNY

I remember that Mother once told me that traditionally, the 9th Day of CNY being 天公诞 is as important and significant as the 1st Day of CNY and so, the 8th Day of CNY is almost like the CNY Eve. During the kampong days, many folks would embark on another round of grand celebrations, beginning with the marketing and preparing for big feasts on the 8th Day of CNY and culminating on big, grand and generous offerings to the Heavenly Jade Emperor at the stroke of midnight.

I recall helping Mother to prepare a fresh new set of sweets and candies in the candy trays for this purpose, in the evening of the 8th Day of CNY every year when I was a child. In fact, this continued until I moved out to stay on my own. There was always this sense of excitement which made me feel so good and which is quite indescribable.....

There was, of course, also the very huge pile of various special incense papers 天公银纸、贵人银纸等等 (much larger than the usual palm-sized ones) and the pair of sugar-canes (with some yellow stringed paper decorations) to be burnt at the end of the prayers. Actually, only the leafy end of the sugar-canes would be burnt (the rest is consumable) and these would give out loud crackling sounds as they get tossed last into the pile of burning incense papers.

Given the sheer quantity of incense papers for burning, we have been helping Mother to 'burn' these offerings at the designated bins downstairs. All these years, it would be either CP and/or R and/or me who accompany(ies) Mother to burn the offerings. Sometimes, the breeze was gentle and it would be easy to get the fire started; at other times, the winds would be so strong that we would need to strike at least 2-3 matches held together, over a few times, before we could achieve a fire to start the burning.

Last year, Mother had commented when we went downstairs for the burning that most of the households in our neighbourhood no longer practise or observe this festive celebration for the Birthday of the Jade Emperor. Over the years, fewer and fewer families came down to burn their incense papers - most of the older generation folks have either moved out of the estate or passed on. Almost all of the younger families do not engage in any of these prayers stuff. And so, it has been getting quieter and quieter these days....

This year, there was zero of such celebrations on the 8th and 9th Days of CNY. All was completely quiet for us. Mother had told us a few days earlier that instead of making the offerings at my place (because I have no altar nor 天公炉 at home), she planned to burn the incense papers at the temple instead. Simple offerings of fruits and some food items would be brought to 城隍庙 together with the incense papers on the following Sunday.

And so, on the 8th and 9th Days of CNY this year, only 2 relatively small stacks of incense papers stood in the kitchen, quietly waiting to be offered in the temple on Sunday. As midnight came and went, there was hardly any trace of the unique 'smell of burning incense paper' in the air. I also didn't hear any of the familiar 'crackling' of the sugar-canes at all.

The 8th Day of CNY this year fell on Valentine's Day. At my office, my colleagues and I pooled together and sent a bouquet of roses to one very important colleague, who was so delighted to receive the flowers! For a whole week (yes, till the roses whithered on the Wednesday following VD!), she had the bouquet on display at her desk for all to see and envy.

On the 9th Day of CNY, the whole of my section went for the CNY lunch which my boss customarily gives us each year. Both the food and company were ok, although my colleague kept kicking me in the leg to 'tell' me to look at one of the other colleagues sitting across the table whose table manners fell short of social expectations/acceptance. Aiyah, what can I do, right?! To each his own, lah!

10th Day of CNY

WY and WF resumed their usual weekend CL classes on this Saturday. To drum up some sense of continued CNY festivities in them (and their classmates), I packed some of the CNY candies in 红包 for each of them to bring to share in class.

It is very unfortunate, I think, that many (if not most) of the parents of their classmates are rather apathetic and unenthusiastic about CNY (some don't even know anything much about CNY even though they are of the Chinese race) and so, many (if not most) of the children just regard CNY as just any other public holiday or just another break from school. So I was hoping that by providing the red-packeted CNY goodies for sharing in class, the CL teachers can at least mention (or perhaps, explain a little) to them the significance of CNY.

Of course, I don't really know for sure if the CL teachers do or did that. But at least, WY and WF are enthusiastic about sharing these goodies with their friends.

So, much of the CNY goodies such as the mentos, marshmellows, nougats, Ferrero Rochers, 大白兔奶糖 etc were 'cleared' after the red-packeting.

After the CL classes, we went to the food court at Kallang Leisure Park for a simple yong-tau-foo lunch. Then we popped into the supermarket to grab some fresh milk and yoghurt. At the chillers, I also spotted some offers for frozen 汤圆 and I thought to myself, "Perhaps we can have these 圆圆的汤圆 over the next weekend when everyone is back. It would be nice even though the 15th Day of CNY would have been over by then, right?" And so, I selected 3 packs of the 汤圆 although I wasn't sure if there was space in the freezer for these.

After payment, we had to rush back home because WY was scheduled for tuition with me (instead of CP). Although Saturday tuition is a regular part of our Saturday routine, the tuition this week was particularly important because of the coming CA1. And we had so many topics to cover, it was quite daunting.

It was an Own-Time-Own-Target day that day because Mother had gone on a day tour to Malaysia, CP had flown to HK and YP and the rest were going for dinner at her sister-in-law's house.

Luckily, I managed to rearrange some of Mother's stuff in the freezer to make space for the 汤圆，which I skilfully squeezed into the almost-bursting freezer (never mind that the 汤圆 looked a little 'squashed', lah)!

11th Day of CNY

We started our Sunday being late for 文化艺术团 classes! Somehow, getting up early and back to routine after a long 4-day CNY break was really a challange.

R and I dropped the boys off and then quickly made our way to AMK market to buy some Korean pears. The fruit stall at this market was where we got our mandarin oranges from. The stallholder's service is very good and the fruits offered are of very good quality. So I bought 2 bags of Korean pears (total of 14 pieces) and a pack of Korean strawberries (very pricey at $9 for 9-10 pieces).

Later, we had to make an unscheduled trip back home (because we had been in such a hurry in the morning that we had forgotten to bring WF's LW School bag!) and so I brought one bag of the pears to Father. He wasn't home, so I just shoved the bag of pears into the fridge.

After that, we dashed back to LW School and arrived just on time for class. During the 2-hour break, R and I squeezed in a foot massage and a trip to 福华人参燕窝行 to get some energy-boosting American Ginseng concoction (in readiness for CA1, mah!). We managed to get a 30% discount because there is an ongoing promotion for VIP cardholders.

Later, we had a simple dinner with Mother at home. R then accompanied Mother to 城隍庙 for the prayers/offerings for 天公诞 as planned while WY and I spent our evening poring over HCL revision because the 1st paper was HCL. In the meantime, WF was allowed to indulge in his computer games (sigh, cannot help it but got to rely on this substitute-nanny in such last-minute emergencies to keep him occupied before I am done with the revision with WY). Needless to say, WF was more than delighted at this 'liberty' whilst WY slogged away at the table.

12th and 13th Days of CNY

For both these days, I took the afternoon off to go home to revise CL and EL with WY. At the recommendation of the driver of the taxi which I had hopped onto on the 1st of these 2 days, I took the ECP-KPE-PIE route from my office. Surprisingly, the journey took less than 15 minutes (including waits at the traffic lights)! Each trip cost me about $8. The ERP Gantry was not in operation at that time, of course.

I took the same route on the 2nd day and shared with the taxi-driver that all of us at home have had to put up with the very dusty and noisy construction works for the KPE for years now, and have suffered lots of respiratory and other problems resulting directly and indirectly from all the air and noise pollution. So it is only right that we get to enjoy the benefits of faster, smoother and better travel on the KPE, right?!

CP flew back to SG late in the night on the 13th Day of CNY. WY was delighted when I told him so because he was looking forward to CP's tuition 'lesson'.

14th Day of CNY

CP returned early in the afternoon to give tuition to WY as scheduled. She was exhausted and so returned to AMK soon after 10pm.

WF practised his 写字 for his 1st-ever 听写 test which was scheduled for Friday. This little boy needs a lot of coaxing and encouragement in order to complete the writing practice, but he did such a great job that even I was surprised! His Chinese characters were so well written that he truly deserved the 'Panda biscuits' which CP had brought home for him. He took one of the biscuits with his youghurt that night.

15th Day of CNY

In my office, we organised a big 元宵节 Feast on the 15th Day of CNY. A total of 18 colleagues (21 were expected but 3 couldn't make it) came together for a sort-of potluck lunch in a big meeting room which we had booked for this Feast.

We got to enjoy that afternoon: 鱼生、薄饼、kueh pie-ti, 扣肉包、鱼圆、炸五香香肠、白斩鸡、longan-jelly cocktail and sparkling juice! That's a huge feast, right?! The 扣肉包 was contributed by me - Mother helped to cook it, of course!



Not surprisingly, many of us over-ate and couldn't help plonking ourselves down onto our laptops when we returned to our work stations after the Feast. *snooze*....

The 15th Day of CNY would have ended on this beautifully happy note, therefore, if not for what was to happen in the evening back home.

By the time R and I got WF back from CH School, it was already very late. CP was already well into revision with WY in the room. I gave WF his shower quickly and then we both started to have our dinner. Mother decided to go meet up with her friends downstairs for a chat.

Midway through our meal, the phone rang. CP picked it up but put it down seconds later. Almost immediately after that, the phone rang again. This time, WF hurried to pick up the call. He enthusiastically said, "Hello. Hello? Hello? Who are you?" Before I could say anything, WF shoved the phone to me, "Mama, I don't know it is."

I took over and heard the caller ask, "Can I speak to Gor-Gor, please? I would like to speak to Gor-Gor, please."

I went, "Ha? Who is Gor-Gor? Which Gor-Gor?!" (At home, no one else is known as Gor-Gor except for WS, correct?! So I thought this caller must have dialled the wrong number or something.)

Instantly, the caller paused and said, "Are you LP? Can I speak to your mother, please?"

Now I recognised that voice and so I replied, "Oh, Aunty K, ah? My mother has gone out with her friends. She's not at home now."

"Er, I want to check with her....." the caller started to say, but changed her mind and simply said, "Erm, never mind."

That ended the weird phone call, lor. Instincts told me that something not-so-good was about to happen. Something must be brewing, maybe about to boil-over soon...

True enough, later CP came out of the room and said that AhYee had just called to ask to speak to Mother (who still hadn't come back yet) because C2's wife had called to tell AhYee that OL had gone missing! CP told AhYee in half-jest, "Aiyah, Bluff one lah. OL just acting because she has become bored again, lah. You all shouldn't worry, she will come back by herself later. Sure like that one."

CP said that AhYee burst into laughter when she heard what CP had said, and told CP, "That's exactly what C1 said, too!"

Anyway, having seen how OL loved to put up some acts and shows every now and then (typically after a good break of one relatively peaceful month or so), I also agreed with CP and was convinced that this was yet another of OL's attention-seeking game.

Shortly after, CP called it a day and went home after reminding WY to be very careful in answering the Maths test questions the following day. I also got the boys to wash up and then retire to bed.

At about that time, Mother came back. I was in the toilet. She knocked on the toilet door and called out to me in a fluster, "Aiyah, this troublesome OL ah - now C2 said she has gone missing! Must go and report to the police, so I got to get my keys to my house and retrieve OL's NRIC for him."

"You are going to make a police report again, ah?! You kenna bluffed before, then got to go and cancel report, remember?" I reminded Mother.

"No, lah. I won't need to go, lah. C2 will do it. I am just going to get OL's NRIC for him," Mother said and was gone before I even came out from the toilet.

Mother didn't return till 10 minutes before midnight. By then, R and I were about to go to bed. She said as she hurriedly took her towel and clothes to get ready for a shower, "Found already lah. At Serangoon Garden area. In a neighbourhood police post. Police report was made, then police told us to wait. Minutes later, the computer showed something and then police said OL was at a Serangoon Gardens Police Post. So got to go and fetch her back."

Ah...........

I didn't even bother to ask anything else. So much so for the 'Get the NRIC for him only, lah!'..... Yah, sure......

But then, I cannot help but be amazed by OL's ingenuity and never-ending perseverance in her attention-seeking tactics, hor. Yet another successful performance to an ever-eager and willing audience. *applause*

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The Day after 15th Day of CNY

The aftermath of OL's 正月十五‘元宵节’performance was not unexpected - early morning the following day, Mother returned home from her marketing with a big pack of breakfast for OL. (Whatever happened to the "No need to do anything already" conclusion which had been arrived at at the 武林大会? Another *poof* .... In fact, Mother has resumed the supplying-breakfast job since some weeks ago.... see onlysonsmatter for update later.)

Then, as Mother set about taking out her fish and vegetables for washing etc, she started to grumble, "I am going to give her the breakfast later. I want to wait for her to come out to collect the food in person because then I can scold her for all the trouble she has caused. If I just hang the food at her gate, she won't come out because it is still early. Wait, I will go down later....."

All these grumbles and nagging got me quite irritated and soon enough, Mother and I got into an argument. To me, it is so clear that this is a willing-audience-participating-in-a-deliberate-pretend-show. And so, I exasperatedly told Mother, "If you are a willing party, then don't grumble!"

Needless to say, Mother shouted back and her arguments spiralled off tangent; she brought in all kinds of other matters and issues regardless of whether those were related or unrelated, relevant or irrelvant. And that made me even more fuming mad. And so our shouting match went on until I finally stomped off to work.

See, OL = Nothing But Trouble. Troublesome Trouble. Painful Pain.

新春佳节的期间，对无人探访、无人理睬的她而言，或许是太无聊了。可是，这样就‘情有可原’地在元宵之夜，来场精彩演出，陶冶陶冶一下、爽一爽吗？！OL 真的是太可恶了！

还有，C2+ 等虚伪份子，说的一套，做的又是另一套！假仁假义，有什么好的，我们是外人；有什么坏的，就跟我们称姐道弟！我呸！