26/1/09) - Chinese New Year. =) For Grading

Hi all. Days sure go by like a breeze. One moment I was there receiving hong baos from relatives, next I'm here, blogging.Sigh. Now, i need to recount this really far far back, like a week ago, so don't blame me if i sound kind of withdrawn. Here goes.........to 26th of January.

I was woken up not by an alarm clock, not by an irratating maid, but to the shining face of my little brother. It was quite a shock really, so i did not realise that he was saying something. Then he bit me. On the arm. Quite hardly. Shaken out of my reverie by raw pain, i awoke."Matthew, wake up, we are going off already you know."he exclaimed. I wandered downstairs to a state of bustling. Ahhh, it was that time of year again. Time for the ever exclusive Chinese New Year.

Before we left, it was customary that we bai nian to my father for a hong bao. This would most likely be the biggest one of that i would ever get, although others come abit close. My brother would try this humble approach where other people cannot even hear what he is saying.However, my youngest brother takes the show. He would walk towards my father and in his sweetest voice, wish him a happy new year. Ever since he could talk, me and my other bro were not alone anymore in our ackward greetings..
Next up, we were going to our grandmother's house next to Bedok MRT station. My grandmother is a lively person, very talkative. I must express my inapitude at speaking enough Chinese, let alone Hokkien. Whenever i try to talk to her, it always comes into a bad fix. She nomally converses in Hokkien, but would say some smatterings of her also not that good Chinese for me. But then my Chinese would fail me and I can sometimes never understand what she says.
We arrived around 12pm and it was time for the mandatory greetings for Chinese New Year to begin. Greeted by the smiling faces of relatives and their uttered greetings of " xin nian quai le", I thus entered the familiar house of my grandmother. Many a time have i spent nights visiting and having dinner with my grandparents that it is not an ackward thing to step into her house like many other unfamiliar places of relatives that I hardly ever visit.
We gathered around for a delicious hokkien meal, though i feel that maybe it is not as appetizing as before. Still, it is a rare occasion that i ever get to taste the food prepared by my grandmother, so one must not be choosy.
Next up, time to mix around and catch up with my relatives. After all, I can honestly say that i hardly see my cousins in this side of the family and so, it is imperative that I get to know them better. I now realise that i never really know these people that are my kin. Mostly what i hear is what my mother knows; after all, it is her side of the family. The main activity that we would spend doing now would be to watch TV. That's it. The famous activity that we all do is just to watch Chinese Dramas. Now the dumb thing is that while the adults mix around in the living room and watched tv, all the kids were watching the same stuff in the 2nd bedroom that is now a guest room i suppose, after my aunt got married and moved away. We were just watching tv on a screen no bigger than this computer screen now(14 inch), me, Mark and my cousins Kian Leong, Justin and little Jaryl. It was just our hanging out place of the day. Of course I got bored and changed the show to the Brit Choice Awards, but soon found out that it was pretty meaningless, as i hardly know what these people were saying anyway. -.-
Well, I stayed there from 12 to 2, just checking out what people were doing with their lives and generally having fun. It was interesting to talk to Kian Leong about IP life; after all, he went to TPJC integrated programme and his views might influence my desicion too....
Anyway, soon it was time to go, after collecting 6 hongbaos. We would usually get together and visit my grand-aunt's house, but she passed away 2 years ago and the cycle was broken. SO, all of my kin on my mother's side would be coming this saturday, including her cousins, our my distant uncles and uncles, to my house. Thats going to be SOME cleaning that I need to do around the house..............I can't wait.