MINing of Life

Monday, 7 February 2011

Lunar NEW YearY

The year is absolutely new. New feelings. New way of celebrations. New people.

Where should I start from?
除夕, or New Year's Eve.
I made a trip back to TK just for a home-coming visit to see my teachers. And the first person I spoke to was, of all teachers, Mr Tan. Yes, Tan Kee Hoe. At the traffic junction. He had never ever spoken to me in such a cheerful and non-judgmental manner. So that was a total different feeling as I was always against most of his way of doing things or treating people except teaching methods. By the way, I'm still very thankful for him (my year-head then) for giving me the opportunity to take Art as a subject by opening the class despite having me as the only student.

I was quite late. The concert was long over, teachers were leaving. But I managed to catch up with Miss Tan, my art teacher, for most of the time. So we're going to visit Mrs Tan, our 前辈 or my 师母, probably next week.

Back to the family, we used to spend our 除夕 preparing home-cooked 团圆饭, with home-made yu sheng, and all the steamboat little little this and that to be cooked. However, this reunion was really special. It wasn't just a reunion dinner. My dad doesn't say it, neither do his siblings, but it was a grand welcoming of my dad to his biological family; for the very first time, he was celebrating lunar new year with his brothers and sister. And never before had we had our 团圆饭 at a restaurant. I felt the togetherness of the family, something that I had been anticipating since December last year.

After the dinner, my bro and I wanted to head down to Chinatown for a walk, which eventually we did not. The entire family ended up doing last-minute spring cleaning! Till midnight. We finally changed the 20+ years old microwave. My area cleaning covered the living room and the kids' toilet (shared by us, children of our parents) and my room. So people who felt comfy at the living room, hope you enjoyed yourself =]

除一
The routine was suppose to be:
1. Dad's first sister
2. Dad's second sister
3. Dad's sworn God-brother
4. Mum's second aunt
5. Hwa Yew

Due to the missing of 2, we had to skip that.
We decided to postpone 3 till day 2 because we had to go Dad's second brother's place for lunch.
姨婆二 (say that in Hainanese) passed away last year which explains why 4 is gone from the routine list.

This year's routine is like... ok, we have a few must-go places at certain time, so the rest is just slot-in. Don't get what I mean? Never mind. So,
1. Dad's first sister
2. Dad's cousin
3. Dad's second brother
4. Dad's other God-brother, and his sisters
5. Hwa Yew

1. The place seems quieter as the old folks become lonelier. We happened to meet their eldest son and family, but sadly, they stayed for probably 10 minutes or so then left in a hurry. The way he gave his father the red packet, was like giving a packet of tissue, no sincerity. They were quite anti-social too. It's probably the second or third time I met them besides the passing of my grandmother. Total coldness.

2. We usually visit Uncle Foo on the second day. But due to the change of routine, his place was "on the way", so we decided to give it a try. And truly, he's always out on day one. Tough luck.

3. Dad's second brother, Uncle Richard's (not that I call him that) place was at Punggol, the newer type of flats. That's where Lenny, his son who's 14 years my senior in ADM, stays with his dog, Fei Fei. Dad's first brother, Uncle Eddie (I don't call him that either), is a great cook. So he dished out very simple but extremely heart-warming home-cooked sweet potato porridge meal. There was the previous day's 盆菜 which was still very tasty, luncheon meat with eggs!, and preserved vegetable.

I got to chat a little with Lenny, Uncle Richard and Uncle Sey Thong, the fourth brother. One question I posted out which had been itching inside me was: DID YOU ALL (the cousins) ALREADY KNOW ABOUT HAVING ANOTHER UNCLE ALL ALONG OR JUST AT THE GRANDFATHER'S WAKE?
The answer: They knew it all along.
That speaks a lot. It speaks about the significance of my dad to the Foo family. It's a missing piece of puzzle which no matter where you look at the whole almost-completed puzzle, there's still this missing piece which makes it incomplete.
Dad thought that the kids wouldn't know about him, but they did. I was touched.

The uncles also told me how they used to frequent the coffee shop where my dad lived in but was alway chased away by my grandmother. haha... exactly like what dad said.

4. Initially, we planned to visit him at Simei because it's "on the way" from Punggol back home. After making a call, he told us he was heading to his sister's place at Dakota, so that became our destination. New place, new people. Not really new, but I didn't notice them at grandmother's wake.

It's interesting to hear stories from my dad's past and the people he met. It's sad, though, that as they get older, they get weaker and more prone to illnesses. Dad's god-brother suffered a stroke.

5. At Hwa Yew, we have been changing our activities yearly for the past few years. When we were still little kids, we used to run around, play with firecrackers, have ball games, then it shifted to card games, then mahjong. Now, everyone has grown old =( I mean we're no longer little kids anymore. The last reunion, there was only one baby from the new generation. This year, there were three, but the eldest didn't turn up. We are all uncles and aunties now!

Most of the time, I was with Paul! He's very intelligent and extremely adorable!!! Initially, he was just fussing around with the food. Then we had him to do what he liked best, PEELING ORANGES!!! Soooooo cute! And my dad challenged the 2-year-old to peel a pomelo, which he did a great job with intense focus! Bravo to this little active boy.

Something I kind of regret was to have a good chat with my cousins. I have always been quiet over the years because of the gap. The line-up of the cousins is like this:

Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
Female
.
.
.
Female
Male
Male
Male
.
.
.
Male
Female

And sadly, I'm the last girl, so all of my female cousins have passed their mid-twenties and I haven't been talking to my male cousins. It's really difficult to open up all over again. Moreover, everyone else talks about work, finance, engineering, army, business... once you talk about art and design, they kind of switch off. I just feel that the gap is widening. It's really aching as most of us meet only once a year.

As we all get older and with new arrivals, dinner ended earlier than usual. I guess it's going to be the same next year. The older folks got to rest, my generation's energy level isn't as high as before, and the little babies need to have sufficient recharging time before they get hyperactive again.

除二
1. Dad's sworn god-brother
2. Dad's cousin

1. Uncle was excited to see us, as usual. He exclaimed that he was expecting us the previous day. "There were so many people! And I prepared a lot of food!" Immediately, he heated and prepared more food for us! Before you knew, we were having our lunch at 11am. It was oh so scrumptious! Very home-cooked heart-felt food too.

Lesson learnt, we MUST visit him on the first day or he'll be disappoint again.

2. At Uncle Foo's place, we met Biao Yu. The last time I saw him was so many years ago! When I was still a primary school girl, I guess! Managed to catch up with him and watch his little boy play with his care bear and spongebob =]

And the question of the day was directed at my brothers and me: 有 girlfriend/ boyfriend 了没有?
oh well ...

3. Part three wasn't part of new year visiting. It so happened to be Vivian's birthday. Hui Min asked if I wanted to join the party to give Vivian a surprise. I was there for a while before I went down to River Ang Bao to meet my parents. Apparently by the time I reached, they were done walking around so we headed to Marina Bay Sands.

除三
1. SLC/NYC reunion lunch
2. ADM classmates new year dinner cum Cheryl's birthday

1. It's the third time I'm holding SLC reunion meal at my place but we had another member, Edwin Peter, this year. I happened to see his Facebook post asking who's free on that day, so I invited him over. Really glad to see all my council pals =] I just like seeing them. It reminds me so much of the times we has to see one another every morning for council meeting then morning assembly and podium duty. Not to forget the non-councilors in SLC, the memories from Hong Kong will never be erased from my brain. Love you peeps deep deep down, just that I don't say it out.

2. My classmates! These bunch of people are my closest friends in TP. It's a pity that a few of them couldn't turn up. Other than that, that night was awesome! We all love food, so obviously they had to have a wonderful time at Pang Chiaw Min the foodie's house.

I apologies if I wasn't a good-enough host 'cause maybe my energy was sort of drenched with so much preparations.

And I'm so proud to say that this year, I prepared everything without my mum's help. All she did was to sit down and eat! =] Special thanks to Si Yuan for being early to help wash the vegetables and 二哥 for all the little things you did.

I was so so tired, I fell asleep without showering =X goodness.

This Lunar New Year of 2011, I felt the warmth in kinship, the chill in "distancing relationships", the energy in young generation, the cosiness of old faces, the anticipation of strengthening bonds and the joy of coming together.

12:06 am;

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