Today is the beginning of the Year of the Goat in the Chinese Lunar calendar. May the year bring abundance prosperity, happiness and peace in the world.
Here’s wishing all a Happy and Prosperous New Year or in various dialects (Mandarin, Cantonese, Teochew & Hokkien): Gong Xi Fa Cai, Kong Hey Fatt Choy, Sin Chia Ju Ee and Kiong Hee Huat Chai!!!
The reunion dinner is very important for Chinese families during Chinese New Year. All, if not most, family members will make the effort to be present for this occasion if possible. Every year, hubby and I alternates this duty with our parents, even years with my mom here and odd years with his parents at their hometown. This year, it will be with his parents.
And every year when we have to hit the road, the typical four and a half hours journey doubles in its duration because half the country will also be traveling either for this occasion or simply take this opportunity to go away for a road trip holiday. It gets worse upon return because that half of the country that travelled earlier decides to return all at the same time, clogging up the highway all the way; there was a year we took 10 hours to reach home.
With such ghastly hours, I dread the journey sometimes but it has to be done. So we brace ourselves with all comforts thrown in: iPods, iPads and phones fully charged for entertainment and connectivity, several powerbanks for backup power for the devices, lots of snacks and water for survival. It can be fun sometimes but only if we make it so. The girls would bring along pillows and blankets to make their travel more comfortable.
Well, we can’t really tell the traffic volume until we hit the road tomorrow and regardless of the duration—be it five, seven or ten hours—we will be there for the reunion dinner with hubby’s side of the family.
I feel as though I should give myself a pat on the shoulder for accomplishing quite a bit over the weekend. It wasn’t the big battle with the Chinese New Year crowd that I thought I’d have to do but my games!
The pat on the shoulder was for me finally crossing Level 185 of Candy Crush Soda, which was so difficult and also Level 821 of Candy Crush, which was even more difficult. I have been stuck at these two for sometime and perseverance finally paid off.
Honestly, I also managed to complete my Chinese New Year purchases without stressing too much. The secret? Online shopping! The bulk of the necessary was made easy with Tesco’s online services. With free delivery for this festive occasion, I totally took advantage of it and saved the hassle of going to the mall and fight with the last minute shoppers.
I am ready to usher in the Year of the Goat come Thursday.
I decided to resole my busted Blundstone to give it a new lease of life before the Lunar New Year. Not quite the same in terms of the sole pattern and thickness, I should at least be happy that the boots can be salvaged. After all, the top portion of it is still good and can be used. It’s just the bottom that experienced hydrolysis and disintegrated.
Anyway, with the repair cost only one fifth of the original cost of the boots, I shouldn’t complain. Also I had a brand new replacement pair delivered and with this pair repaired, I now have two pairs of Blundstone.
This is how it looks with the new sole.
A new sole
A comparison of the old (top) and the new (bottom).
Whenever I travel, I am always on the lookout for animal figurines to add to my collection besides pieces of paintings.
For example, whenever I visit Thailand, elephants are in my mind and I will be on the lookout for them. My last two trips to Thailand (Krabi in October and Bangkok in December), I found a mama and baby elephant pillow from the island and two clay elephants from the Chatuchak market to add to my collection.
Besides elephants, I also have—from all over the world—a few pigs, hippos, chickens, mandarin ducks and a wombat. But I find I cannot expand their family anymore because they are not so popular and easily available especially in the ASEAN countries that I often visit. So I started a new line: owls.
Now owls are more universal and boy, do they come in all shapes and sizes. My recent trip to Penang, amazingly yielded these newbies to my collection.
Mostly from the Owl Shop on Cannon Street with a few from a little booth at Straits Quay, these owls are really beautiful and adorable.
I like.
I foresee the owl collection growing by leaps and bounds to rival the elephants!
Do you have to stare?
Last week we received a postcard from my sibling and wife when they visited New Zealand… in December!
My goodness. It was mid-December when they left for their vacation. The pretty postcard was postmarked 15 December, two days into their time there. And we received the postcard on 6 February! Wow.
Snail mail is indeed dead if it takes this long to arrive at its destination.
I couldn’t stand the fact that I have progressed for Candy Crush but not Farm Heroes. It was most annoying. So I decided to google up on some cheats (farmheroescheats.com) to pass Level 653.
The strategy was to work on the bottom level so that the top cascades down to open up the clams without wasting any moves. I tried this tactic and after several tries, I finally succeeded! Yay.
If I had known earlier, I should have done this a long time ago instead of allowing this aggravation to last this long.
Maybe I should do the same (look up some cheats) with Candy Crush Soda for Level 185? Hmm…
As Chinese New Year is just around the corner, getting a haircut is one of the preparations. I visited my stylist three days ago, seven weeks from the last visit (I go for my haircut every six to seven weeks). For someone with short hair, that’s a lot of trips to the hairdresser in a year compared to the two girls with long hair. They have their haircut twice or maybe three times a year.
Whenever I come back with my usual short hairdo, it hardly gets noticed and when the girls do notice, they’d say,”Oh. You got your mushroom head!”
Eeesh.
This time, thank goodness they did not pass the mushroom head comment but instead admired the new color of the hair.
Candy Crush has been relatively easy. I completed Caramel Clearing rather quickly, the chapter after Fudge Fjord and have gone on to the next one, Candy Calaboose.
However, the same (ease) cannot be said for the other two games. I have been stucked at Level 653 for my Farm Heroes and Level 185 for Candy Crush Soda for a while now. Hopefully I can make some progress before the Lunar New Year comes around.
Today is yet another public holiday, celebrating Thaipusam, but it feels like a weekend because we lined up activities that we normally reserve for the weekend. We did not want to stay in Penang until today knowing we will be caught in a big traffic jam upon our return, hence the journey back yesterday.
The next big festivity coming up is Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year. It is approaching fast and there isn’t much time left to prepare for it. I should be doing my New Year shopping but as always, am procrastinating. It’s the same every year, Queen of last minute.
I may go fight with the crowd this coming weekend to settle the preparations once and for all.
Remarks