May the year of the Golden Pig be prosperous for you and everyone!!!

Actually to be fair, my family have a very traditional chinese new year. We all get dressed up in our chinese outfits and the kids look so adorable. I have to say Chinese New year and christmas are two of my favourite events of the whole year.

We eat Nin Guo too (home made infact - my mum makes them every year) and we have dumplings (some of which contain coins) - so if you manage to select a dumpling with a coin, its means you are very lucky. We also have a family dinner on Chinese New Year's eve where the holiday sit down and eat together - where there is absolutely tonnes of food.

This is one time i love being single cos i get lucky money (lai see).

Chinese new year in China town is huge now and with over several tens of thousands of people turning up for the occasion. We tend to give it a miss as it gets way over crowded. We prefer to stay at home and spend it with family and friends.

So gonna take this opportunity to wish every one a great year of the Golden Pig - kung hey fat choy!!!!

The religious altar and the front of my house.
The living room
fruits!
delicious snacks! I am stuffing my face with pineapple tarts as I type
My new doraemon bedsheets!
This year was unusually quiet, mainly because of my father's reluctance to see many people. My brother is in the midst of finalising his divorce, which seems to still be viewed as taboo here. And I had broken up with my ex boyfriend of 5 years whom everyone adored. To save us the trouble of relatives digging at old wounds and the annual repetitive question of "oh how you've grown, how was your 'O' Levels?" , my brother and i escaped visiting at the relatives. In place, i was stuffing my face with delicious pineapple tarts and other chinese new year goodies, while reading a great book. A perfect way to relax and steal time away from 'the rituals'. I am however guilty that I'm evading my own traditional customs, unfortunately, my dad doesnt enjoy great ties with his relatives given that he was the son borne of my late grandfather's 'second wife'.

Anyhow, here are some pictures of the vibrant atmosphere in my house.

Gummy sweets content:



Oh don't we just love capitalism and the commerce it brings with it. These kitsch little packaging contain colourful gummy candies. I love the sardin tin design and old school chinese font.

me and my soft spot for all things kitsch and fancy!

Here are some Chinese new year cakes. also known as 'NIan gao'- cantonese 'nin gou'. Not sure if this is an accurate tale, but my mother says today is the 24th day of the lunar new year and the 'Gods' have all ascended to the heavens, all except for the Guan Yin deity. My grandmother used to say we have to make offerings of these cakes to the kitchen god as bribery. These sticky cakes are said to keep his mouth shut, so that he will not say bad things to the jade emperor on how we have behaved this entire year. Since the kitchen is a busy meeting point for everyone in the family, whether it's to share good news, gossip or complain, it was the kitchen god who was the guardian of the home in a way.

These cakes are delicious when cut up and dipped in flour batter mixed with some salt. Made from flour and melted brown sugar, they are put in banana leaves and solidified with a sweet banana leave flavour. Do you do the same in England, T? I love these cakes!

Pictures of the 年糕




And I'm not sure if you practise the same. My feng shui obsessed mother loves windmills. It brings good luck. Like that phrase 'winds of change'. It's about changing of fortune and good 'qi'. As they say 转云. This is the picture of my backyard.


And here the giant rooster carved of wood to ward of bad luck, bad spirits and ill will. I mentioned it in a previous post. this rooster weighs about 5kg, a much larger version of the golden one my mother made me take to work!


Finally, these pair of fish I bought for a steal. the fish alone is about 60cm. Are fish a popular symbol with your family too? From the auspicious chinese saying 年年有余 (nian nian you yu), meaning every year there is abundance and excess. Because of the phonetic sound of the last character, it goes with fish, so the fish became a symbol of good luck and prosperity over here in Singapore- at least that I'm sure of.

Do you also eat lots of prawns over reunion dinner on the eve of chinese new year? It's a must-have at our dinner table every year, because the phonetic sound of 'ha' 虾 in cantonese is like the 'ha ha' laughter sound （哈哈笑）. And it's about laughing all the way into the new year. Do you practice this too? I love these symbolic phonetic sounds.


So tell me more about how you celebrate. I'm really curious about the traditions of other migrant chinese, although both my parents were born and bred here. Hence i think the traditions have been diluted somewhat.

Have a good week ahead!

xoxo

Well my serious relationships have all been with Chinese guys - have dated a few Western guys too but they never work mainly due to the age difference. For some reason only younger men fancy me but then again i only fancy younger men. You start off having a great relationship and then suddenly they get cold feet. Relationships are hard work and sometimes i wonder whether they should be.

I do feel sorry for my current boyfriend tho as i know i am very hard work but i really am trying to make more of an effort with him. It tough putting up with me and he must have a high tolerance level tho saying that, he is just as hard work as me.

I know what u mean - i know a few girls who have white man syndrom. I never fancied a white guy til i hit 30 and then i thought what the heck. But none of the relationships with white guys have been successful and i feel they have what you call "yellow fever" they want the girls to be submissive and stuff and i think thats bull shit.

My current boyfriend is aussie chinese, born in hk and lived in Oz since he was 4. He can be really westernised yet very chinese at the same time. I guess we both the same in that sort of sense. I just hope it works out for the two of us...fingers crossed hey

To be honest, i can;t say i have ever fancied a German - they just don;t do it for - i guess its individual taste huh? I think Spanish guys have similar traits to chinese - they are very family orientated and i think thats very important.

The love of my life was from HK and we met and dated in HK yet it didn;t work out. I guess maybe i was too loud and bositerous for him and the poor sod couldn;t handle my temper in the end - i don;t blame him.

Anyway, good luck, you're way younger than me and its taken me 9 years to find a guy who i like enough to go our properly with again. Hopefully you will find your man a whole lot sooner.

Txx

Here is hansi, my austrian friend who came to visit over the weekend on his big asia tour. I took him to the foot reflexologist in my neighbourhood and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience despite the pain.









And last week i ate some peanuts. I was suprised to find them striped! like tiger eggs- if such things existed



And here is my all time favourite snack- the currypuff. my mother actually makes delicious ones, but the last time i remembered her baking them was more than 10 years ago as it takes alot of hard work to make them. Stuff with currypaste, onions, potatoes and chicken, the curry puff is delicious and comes in different variations of filling and crusts. Most common ones are chicken or sardines. An authentic malay snack with chinese versions available all through the city in the ubiquitous 'old chang kee' outlets. (yes they even have a website!!)

Nice to have you back T. i'm abit of a bloggermaniac since i am online all the time at work, surfing, reading, writing to distract away from routine.

My austrian friend, hansi came to visit over the weekend and it was awesome chatting, playing tarot cards and having lengthy discussions about nothing. it was nice playing tourist as well since i never have enough time to get out to explore my own city, and having a guest in town is the perfect reason to get to know the city better.

Wow, 'lai see' i think we have slightly different practices here, but i think alot of the customs have changed in its own subtle way to suit the society where the migrants decided to settle. And i think in many ways my mother probably changed some things to suit her own convenience that my grandmother or her mother would have done differently.

I am dreading the meet the relatives; and answer all the questions the 'sam gu lok por' (gossip queens) will be digging for.

i've only ever had 2 relationships in my life; the first was with a german for 5 years, and the second was a rather brief, intense and complicated one with a Spaniard who left my heart in pieces, i think we skipped the honeymoon period like you and fought alot mainly because i was due to return home to asia and he remained in europe. It continues to break again now and then,but it's better now as i'm practising the 'eliminiation is the solution' tactic that everyone recommends. As you can probably imagine I am not very experienced with boys and relationships, largely because i'm a 'i would like a husband' kind of girl.

I love european boys, continental ones in favour. I know! how shamelessly brazen to admit that. In Asia, maybe you're familiar with this phenomenon, alot of asian women are stigmatised when they're seen with white men, for they are almost instantaenously labelled 'gold diggers'. Of course, im nothing of that sort!! I just like men tall, big, fit and hairy - admittedly not traits you can find in many asians! Although my english colleague pointed out the other day that it is the language barrier am secretly in pursuit of which does make some sense. Communication is important and having to converse in a language other than your mother tongue makes it all the more mysterious. I love languages and all the hidden meanings and mysteries it brings with it.

Being part of the mtv generation, my standards of beauty have always been determined by the western pop culture. the movies we watch, the music we listen to. I remember for the longest time whilst growing up, I wanted a boyfriend like tom cruise (only much taller please!) in the movie Top gun. I'm not sure if i would ever date an Asian, but i think it's unlikely. My first boyfriend is half german/half singaporean and he was the best of both words, physically completely european and having lived all his life in the US/Germany before spending the last 7 years here, he understood both side of the spectrum. And my parents and relatives adored him. He got bonus points because he's a doctor ( you know how traditional parents are)

Pity it didnt work out for a few primary reasons and we were drifting apart in our life directions.

LOL my mother doesnt talk about my eggs running out! Maybe her grandparent clock is ticking. i wouldnt trust my mom's taste in men, she will find me a chinese man for sure! and i love geeks, what's wrong with them!! As they say, it's always the quiet ones, they're alot more fun and interesting!

I will get round to the horoscopes bit if you can wait, but i can tell you for sure that the pisces and scorpio get along because they're both water signs. I have been told many times that my perfect either half will be a water sign, that leaves a fellow pisces, a cancerian or scorpio.

Looks like our birthdays are around the same time! I will plunge into the 'late 20's' this march and I hope i can get my act together and start being more adult about work and life. And maybe start saving for a start. I spend all my money travelling, with the rationale that you live only once. And money can always be earned.

have a good week, im off to read and then sleep.

another long week....

xoxo

Man how long did that take me to work out? why did they change the way this blog worked...see this is what i never understand why change a system when it was working just fine.

Wow you have posted loads of blogs since i was last on....

Let me see if i can remember what you wrote and reply accordingly...

Well even tho i was born in the UK, we are quite traditional...my family do all the chinese things like growing garlic in a bowl, wearing new red underwear, having a bath on Chinese New Year's eve, having a family dinner on Chinese new year eve, and then mum giving us a "lai see" before go to bed and we have to place it under the pillow to bring us luck. On New Years day we go round to relatives houses and food to wish them a happy new year and to get lai see. Tho at the age i am now , it can be quite embarassing as every year they ask me the same question "when you gonna find a boyfriend?" "when's its your turn to give Lai See?" year in year out - it never changes. Thank god i have two older sisters who aren't married either so i can always mention them if that happens.

Don;t worry i get the same from my Mum too. She used to moan about me being single, and that no one is gonna want me and my eggs are running out. Bet your mum doesn;t say that to you. I was single for 9 years, i have a boyfriend now but its so strange as she moans that i spend too much time with him but i only get to see him at weekends.

Its nice having a relationship but it can also be very hard work and sometimes i wonder whether it is meant to be.

Hey as your into chinese horoscopes and english ones why don;t u tell me whether we get on?

I am pisces, year of the rat and he is scorpio, year of the snake. Ok he is my toy boy....

And like they said you usually find someone when u are least looking for one.

If you mum moans more, tell her to find you one and no geeks...

Are you into Oriental guys or Western guys? All my serious boyfriends have been Chinese, (jees that makes me sound like i've had loads) i haven't. Since my last serious boyfriend, never in a million years did i think i would go out with another chinese and guess what my boyfriend is Chinese, but brought up in Oz. We argue so much, i thought people say at the start of the relationship there should be a honeymoon period, but somehow we have managed to skip that.
I hope this relationship works out but who knows.

I am again bored at work. I am sick of doing reception work, its such a no brainer. And also fed up of being poor but TV/Film is my passion and don;t want to do a mudane 9-5 job.

Txx

I think pictures definitely make the blog a whole lot more exciting!

I have a friend, Andy Rementer, who does the most amazing comics, it's called Techno Tuesday

And here are my two personal favourites.

Hope you managed to sort out the password T, and I hope you're doing well since you last blogged. I'm born in the year of the Rooster and it's suppose to be a good year for me.

This morning my mother shoved a little rooster figurine into my bag before i left for work and i relented and took it anyway since it is insignificantly small.

Work has been the same, now how nice if i got paid overtime wages.

So returning to the golden rooster, which incidentally i am a 'gum gai' golden rooster as 1981 is the year of the metal element.

To prevent me from getting upset about office politicking, my mother says having a rooster in the office ensures a more peaceful work environment. My mother believes that i work 16 hour days becos i'm being bullied at work. While that is not entirely true given the nature of the work in my industry, I do get bullied at work since i'm not confrontational and all i really want to do is produce good work, go home, read my books and watch movies while everyone compares who has the latest marc jacobs accessory or prada bag.

Actually, at home, my mother has an 8kg rooster carved of wood. it looks wonderful but i still don't understand her use of it. I will post a picture of it when i get home.

hope to hear from you soon T!

ciao!