CNY the 3rd

Chinese New Year is never complete without visiting relatives, going for angpowthon or listening to dong-dong-chiang songs. I don’t know what happened to me this year but I had a sudden fascination to listen to those Chinese New Year songs. Some of my Chinese friends expressed their annoyance to such music. I think those songs just puts you into a festive mood and you just need to bear with it once in a year only.

Despite the current economic situation, people are quite generous with their ang pows. Maybe this is the first time my relatives see me in the span of five years. I have not made my appearance in the past 4 years of CNY as I was away studying for exams. An aunt gave me a four-figure ang pow money. I stared at her pretty long and she stared back at me for a long time. I hope she did not mistake me for another nephew.

I felt kind of old receiving all the ang pow. I guess being a student and unmarried still makes me eligible to receive ang pows. People my age at 23 or 24 are already working and some of them are even married! Most people forget your age and think you're very young when you tell them you are still studying. Medical students are still in school (5 years of suffering) when others who started their degree at the same time would have graduated and started working.

My brother saw my Korean cousin who's blossoming into a pretty teenager. He commented that he would have hit on her if she was a little older. I smacked him on the head for being so naughty and horny.

There is plenty of food during CNY, enough to feed a whole African village. And there were too many irresistible tidbits. It’s really a test for the health conscious. I’ve been eating so much that I noticed one pimple popping up at the corner of my right eyebrow.

This is a popular food from Little Dove’s tribe, the 'hinava' or raw fish salad. It is a form of salad with pieces of raw fish, bitter gourd, as well as other ingredients.

Despite looking barely legal and having my ID checked everytime when I tried to enter the Genting casino while all my friends breeze through the security, I felt even older when I see my nipple-sucking-bottle-tottling nieces and nephews.

Gugu gaga?

I know kids nowadays are crazy about transformers and Ben10.

Pointing to my cousin’s watch: Is that an Omnitrix?

Kiddy cousin with high-pithced voice: No. It’s a Power Rangers transforming device!

Little Dove: … [I thought Power Rangers was my generation]

I just sat on the floor observing my little cousins play. They are like little hamsters on Prozac, running like crazy all over the place. Mom thought I was babysitting. My brother thought I was emo. I was just amused by the little kids. This was the conversation between my 6-year-old and 3-year-old cousin.

6-year-old cousin: Can you talk?

3-year-old cousin: Hsdfghkodnfodngso

6-year-old cousin: How old are you?

3-year-old cousin: Yuosdkjfsodfsodnf

6-year-old cousin: So can you talk?

3-year-old cousin: Vosofdadfoaffoidf

Then they ran off happily to play somewhere. I stared in disbelief. I have no idea how they are able to communicate with each other. Maybe the 6-year-old was still able to recollect the gibberish baby speak he abandoned not too long ago. Well, kids. Hope your CNY was as amusing as mine!