Tuesday, February 12, 2008

My Chinese New Year holidays

I was on holiday (away from work) since the 1st of February until 11th of February. But I did come back to office on a work emergency on the 5th Feb. which I spend 1 hour 15 minutes solving some data issues. Anyhow, this was my longest holiday break from work ever since I joined this current company. The feeling was nice and I feel rested. But I still hunger for a longer break. Maybe I am greedy or really sick of working.

Well, this Chinese New Year holiday wasn't a busy one for me. As usual, my whole family including my relatives staying in KL would go to my grandma's house in Pahang to celebrate the Chinese New Year occasion there. All of us would stay a night or two there, all 20 over of us will cramp up in one house. As years gone by, it seems that less and less of us gathering at my grandma's house during the most celebrated occasion. Some were married and most of them just drop by for visiting lunch or dinner but did not put up a night there. I think things started to change the most when my grandfather passed away. Well, for me and my family we went there on the eve of Chinese New Year, and we still put up a night or two. There is nothing out of the ordinary except I have to spend it without my sister around. We used to cramp up together in a room, sleeping with some other cousin sister. But this year I had the whole queen size bed to myself. Not that I like cramping, I just feel a little odd. Fortunately, my sister and her husband still able to make the effort to come to my grandma's house for lunch visit during the second day of Chinese New Year.

We started out early to my grandma's house on Chinese New Year eve. Woke up at 5.45am and left the house at 6.30am to avoid the traffic jams. The journey is not that long, it usually takes 1.5 hours time to reach. As I know it would be a boring time for me, I brought a novel to read during my 3 days 2 night stay there. The novel title is Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts which belong to my sister. I was sure that I could finish the whole novel in two days time but I surprised myself by finished reading all the 385 pages in 12 hours on the first day I arrived. I slept at 12.45am after done reading.

The next day, we had vegetarian food. It has been a family tradition to have vegetarian food on the first day of Chinese New Year. It is only on the second day onwards dishes that contains meat would be served. I don't fancy eating at my grandma's house because the food there is not really to my liking. So I had lots and lots of Mandarine oranges instead. I also spend my time there watching TV and playing with my cousin's dog. It's a male dog name is Giorgio (sounds like my dog Jojo). He is so playful and friendly. I went back home to KL after lunch on the second day of Chinese New Year.

The thing I like best during Chinese New Year is receiving lots of ang pow (red packets). This is the privilege that I could still enjoys while I am still not married. I spent the remaining of my holidays resting at home, watching TV and playing computer games. So, today is my first day back to work after my holidays. I feel like I need to plan for another holiday break though in reality, that would not be happening anytime soon.....

5 comments:

Lemonjude said...

Yeah, every year we see things around change and some even surprise us.

Glad that this is the time of the year family all can gather together.

sting said...

awww... I missed those ang pow days.. sigh :-)

Amidrin said...

lemonjude: Yeah, it's good to be able to have this kind of family gathering at least once a year.

sting: Oh! Don't worry, you can at least collect those ang pow on your son's behalf... hehe...

Anonymous said...

Still collecting ang pows huh? Enjoy them while they last! And Happy Working. Maybe the year of the rat will reward you with good prospects career-wise, so work hard!

Amidrin said...

Thank you very much tot's mom, for your well wishes. Yeah, I have got to start scrapping off my lazy bum and work hard from now on. And hopefully my hard work will pay off this year.