Chinese New Year - It's still going you know!

Well, if I'm honest, I'm feeling a bit lazy which means I really shouldn't be blogging right now. However, it has been quite an eventful, cultural week all-in-all. Starting with a very nice Chinese New Year's Eve meal with new friends. A good traditional Chinese meal starting with throwing (with aid of chopsticks), the food in the air. This is accompanied with some shouting but I cannot remember what (I'm sure someone will let me know The higher the throw, the better your prospects for the coming year. I don't know if this works for random Westerners too but it's worth a try! Now, at this point it's worth saying that my photos of proceedings were rubbish so I have taken the liberty of pinching some from Pam Ha (who we met that night, along with hubby Kevin, both from New Zealand). Thanks Pam! The food was beautifully prepared and presented and tasted

Before the toss!

After the toss!

gorgeous. All washed down with a glass of Champers and of course beer. Courses included the traditional full chicken (meaning prosperity and togetherness of family) along with hard boiled eggs (meaning fertility, not sure I'll be needing those, but they tasted very nice). There were some very tasty meatballs (which I believe represents reunion). And then the traditional chocolate cake. Well, I'm not sure it was traditional, but it tasted great! After all that it was great to just chat round the table and enjoy some new company. Aussies (our hosts), Brits and Kiwis all chatting like we'd known each other for ages and not a sporting quip in sight (well, I'm sure that last bit isn't true, but it's nice to think it could happen).
We left the party happy, full and hopefully more prosperous than we've ever been!
Next day (Chinese New Year's Day) was quiet. I think there were probably a few sore Far Eastern heads about. I decided to take D to the Chinese Gardens to see what was happening there. T and Z decided to chill out and hang at home. So me and D set off on the MRT on a beautifully sunny, warm day to see what we could see. Turned out to be a great idea. Only the second time I had ventured to the gardens and I hadn't appreciated quite how expansive they were the first time around. The first thing we see as we stepped of the train (rather unexpectedly bearing in mind where we were), was a whole posse of Indians playing cricket. It was kind of like seeing Hackney marshes in the UK with all the guys playing football on a Sunday. Although the thing with this lot was there was a certain amount of style and technique with which they bowled and batted.

Clean bowled

Clearly enjoying themselves I left them to venture into the Gardens themselves. Red. It was all red. And yellow. Quite an awful lot of yellow too. Lots of lucky colours. First stop was the towering pagoda as we entered the gardens. A lot of people standing around, photos being taken, laughs being had. And then I realised, much to my surprise, most of these people were Indian too. I still don't know why so many visitors were Indian, although I suspect that they lived close by. Having said that one group of guys had come down from Johor for the long weekend and were busy enjoying themselves (as well as trying to take photos of D, not a chance, he is not impressed with strangers taking photos any more. The general cry is of "NO, only daddy takes photos!". Good boy!). Anyway, D decided that climbing the seven stories up to the top of the pagoda was feasible so we did. Normally he wants to be carried but he was off like a flash, eschewing all attempts at photography along the way. The views from the were fantastic and it was actually one of the clearer days I had seen for a while (as well as one of the sunniest).

I would comment on the colours and the flags and the (fake, I'm afraid), blossom on the trees but I think the easiest and laziest way to let you know what it looked like is by posting some more photos! So here you are! The day was much like New Year's Eve with much humility and good wishes. We had a thoroughly nice time just wandering. Even D couldn't stay in his buggy with the promise of fish and turtles to be seen.

The deep red flags blew and flapped in a pleasant and refreshing breeze. Just what was needed to blow away the cobwebs from the night before. D and I ate the most enormous lumps of ice-cream for only a dollar each (D paying with his newly acquired Hong Bao money. Well chuffed he was). We passed on the 'live' tortoise and turtle museum (that by all accounts is quite a pull). It does makes you wonder about the fact that they make a point of calling it 'live'. I would imagine if the artefacts on show got much slower that you would indeed have trouble calling it 'live', but I suspect that the real reason is more to do with the penchant of people in this region to feast on these slow moving fellas and that live is a bit of a novelty.
To top it all we even managed to miss the rain by a whisker as we got back on the MRT bound for Dover station.

See more photos at Flickr

Chinese New Year, Weddings and Work

Yes, work. It used to be a four-letter word to me but now my time is up and I have been recruited in to the massed ranks of city workers in Singapore. It all happened very quickly (although I am still awaiting the contract, but I'm sure that will be sorted soon). One day I'm browsing LinkedIn, next thing I'm being offered a job (a week ago today in fact) that, in principal at least, is exceeding all my expectations. I say in principal because I don't officially start until Monday week. But I have already attended a (phone conference) tender meeting and held my first interview for staff. So you could say things are proceeding at speed. I'll blog more about it when I start but sufficed to say I'm excited, a little apprehensive, excited and quite excited!

The reason I'm starting next Monday (amongst other things) is that Thursday sees the celebration of Chinese (Lunar) New Year. Quite the biggest event on a calendar that is already pretty crowded with big events. Chinese New Year (CNY), this year is being celebrated on 3 and 4 February and will go on until about 15 February (the like to make it big!). I must admit I'm not sure what to expect as unlike with Western celebrations, CNY is also about reflection and spending time with friends and relatives. Indeed, I have already seen the grandparents and possibly even great-grandparents being shipped into our condo to come and spend time with their kids and grand-kids. I am also aware that the majority of shops (most being Chinese owned) will close over the period. With this in mind, T and I set off to Cold Storage to get the essentials in before this happens. It's amazing how many essentials one needs when confronted by possible closure of the shops for two whole days! Not to mention the fact that Mary will be off for three out of four days this week (what are we going to do without her?!). So we bought everything we need I(and mostly don't need), and trotted home.  Tomorrow night we'll see in CNY with some brand spanking new friends from Perth (Australia, not Scotland), who have been kind enough to invite us over for dinner (Chinese of course), and a few drinks. I'm not expecting too much noise, firecrackers etc, but I'm sure their will be some at some point. Just need to find out when and where. And definitely have to find some Dragon Dancing. One thing we are going to do, hopefully, is get the kids down to Marina Bay to see the River Hongbao and watch the firework display to see in The Year of the Rabbit.

 If the Chinese can't put on a good display then who can, huh? The kids will be getting their hong bao (little red envelopes with token money inside for good luck and prosperity), but don't tell them, it's a surprise. Even 'Uncle' who they've befriended will be getting a card. It's a big ol' celebration here.
Saturday sees us off to a wedding in Little India. We were kindly invited by web-presence guru Prakash who owns Yolk (he's gotta get a plug after the invite). The ceremony is to be held at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Singapore and should be great fun. Interestingly, it was the starting point of the Thaipusam festival from two weeks ago. The temple is spectacular from the outside but I didn't go in which I was disappointed about on the day. This should more than make up for it. It will be (unsurprisingly), my first Hindu wedding and frankly I'm pretty excited. Definitely expect some big photos from that one!

Anyway, until next time,

Gong Xi Fa Cai - Happy New Year! - 新年快樂