Little things that i encountered this Chinese New Year

Little things that i encountered this Chinese New Year

Celebrating Chinese New Year is the best thing that can happen in my life. I've always been looking forward to meet friends and family during this festive season. A person might also have a fat chance of gaining weight during this time of the year. Nonetheless, like many years before, me and my family drove down (well, really it's my dad who drives) to Johor to celebrate Chinese New Year with the maternal families and relatives. I can't seem to put into words how thrilled i felt when i'm in the car half asleep and awake on the journey to Johor.

That day was Chinese New Year eve, most families will gather round a table and enjoy different types of scrumptious meal, mostly consisting of meat dishes. We had duck, pork, chicken and more chicken, prawns, meatballs and seafoods, and a few vegetables. Of course, there's always leftovers, and we'd end up consuming the same thing for the next few meals. And who would forget, a jolly nice cuppa shandy for the underaged and sober.

The thing i loved most about the meals? They're prepared by my skillful aunts and granny, and special sauce and sambals grinded single-handedly by my grandmother. I grow up learning to love everything that was cooked by granny.

CNY eve appetizing meal.

Chicken

Pork

The second best thing? We'd always gathered round the tables, offering seats next to us to our cousins and relatives, when everyone settled down with a plate of plain yet sweet scented rice sitting in front, we'll start a prayer collectively, usually led by my cousin before everyone starts gobble up the food in front of them.

One will never expect to leave the table without having a big bulge on their tummy, loosening of belts. It is safe to say that everyone... even the skinniest of them all consumed far too many excess calories in that one sitting. A scrumptious celebration is a celebration indeed.

What is Chinese New Year without firecrackers booming in the sky, radiating the night and gloomy sky? It is a symbol of happiness, prosperity and fun. I don't know, i made that up. 

And when chances like these do arrived home, we won't let go - by taking complete family portraits and shots, together.

Really swag in a way with my uncle's super cool graphical background wallpaper.

And more photos.
I mean, can you sense the CNY feelz in this photo? Well, i definitely do.

Another whole new experience for me this CNY is that, i get to pick out ticks for my cousins' dog. Saved her some scratches and itchiness this CNY. A whole colony of them, few big happy families parasitizing her skins forming holes and holes of ticks. I truly went all out despite they really resembles holes which freaks me out everytime due to this trypophobia thingy. It got more and more interesting in the end, when we crushed them and the blood all came oozing out like nobody's business.

Everyone always visit houses of friends and relatives during CNY. We seldom visit other aunties and uncles' house. This year, we broke that chain. In my 19 years of life, i finally got to visit 2nd aunt's 7th aunt's and youngest aunt's house.

2nd aunt's house.

Youngest aunt's house

 There's this thing really special about my youngest aunt's house here at Layang-layang. It's rural area and requires long drive to reach this small town. It's interesting because you don't see many people staying in stilt houses anymore. Behind their eye catching stilt house, is a mini garden with many collection of plants and species of orchids.

And a really cute black doggie to guard the cottage. 

Here's the garden. I encountered so many different plants that day taking in names that are bizarre and interesting in a way. 

ascending the ladders into the house, is my favorite type of wooden house, though the treadmill felt a bit out of space to be there. The house was brightly lit from all fours with fresh quality air supplying from every possible direction. You won't be expecting to find any refrigerator there, as aunt is practicing a lifestyle that saves the earth. I mean, nothing beats freshness right? Though fridge prolonged the freshness of food, it can never compare to food that are freshly bought and butchered (meat in this case) in any way possible. 

adults gazing out from the house's balcony. 

Cousin.

We made our way next, to Gunung Lambak.

Looking at how the monkeys grabbed the food from human hands and yet afraid of them. 

With mom.

There was this uncle, he really loved coming to this pond at one point of the gunung according to my cousin. He would take off his top, and screamed at the top of his lungs. I was thinking - de-stress. We are constantly strained by the material things in life, chasing things, things to satisfy ourselves. How much of that is kept inside and not let out? Everyone was looking at him weird and hilarious in a way, and he is not feeling anything. I'm impressed, uncle.

I dare not snap a shot of him bathing without his top, who knows he might just grab my camera and started yelling at me like "YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Yeah, that's how he screamed.

Dried leaf that have 2 holes just nice for my eyes!

Went back to aunt's house, we set lanterns to the night sky. Along with my wishes, which i hope they come true. 

And... another of firecracker series. 

The last day before returning to Klang, we went to visit 7th aunt's house. She cook delish meal all the time! We gathered round the long table, and started eating our lunch. Another round of bulging belly. And with droopy eyes and sleepy head, daddy drove us all home safely.

Gong Xi Fa Cai 

kthxbai.

The kids assembled.

Nothing felt better than to have your primary school mates to gather together after 7 years of not meeting each other. This gathering was a really loud and exciting one. Just beside our table sat a group of grown up people with really loud voices. I wasn't kidding when i say loud, their laugh and screams were booming the whole place that we had to screamed over each other's ear with our might to hear the answer to "what i am doing now". I can't count how many times i've repeat "HUH?" "WHAT?" "COME AGAIN?!" that night. It was terrible. Other than that, everything was lovely.

We might be diverse and scattered after 7 years but we still remembered many things about one another.

It felt nice catching up with people you thought are drifting away from your life day by day. We have countless number of friends and acquaintance in our human life. Some who we've forgotten, maybe we still have a faint sketch of their faces hiding in the deepest corners of our minds, but we just can't seem to remember all of them without others reminding us constantly. 

We all start out in our own awkward ways, making small talks, avoiding eye contacts which used to be so similar and mischievous in it's own special ways. Everyone seemed the same, but bigger. It was quiet at first, then we learned how to get comfortable. There's always one or two in the gang that makes everything comfortable then suddenly left the table to another and the whole world is awkward again because that person had been talking restlessly.

But we found our ways, it takes a little bit of time to feel the same like how we used to 7 years ago again. It takes time to find the comfortable companionship we used to hold on dearly when we wrote in each other's graduation book. Where had i placed it, i wonder?

"Forget me not, our friendship's forever. "

And it had only been 7 years.

 Give it another 10 years, we will have pharmacist, lawyer, accountant, IT specialist and more in our gang.

Friends forever

Such a luxurious statement

I cannot even imagine where i would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life a lot more fun.

- Charles R. Swindoll 

kthxbai

Journey home

Coming home is the best thing that could ever happen to me. But the journey back isn’t.

We started off with rough contact, pushing one another to enter the small and compact KTM. The spaces were rather limited to fit all of us. Despite the packed coaches, people continued to stuff their physical body in forcefully, resulting in many angry and annoyed faces. 

At the end of the ladies’ coach sat a middle-aged man who dressed decently enough. But, everything just seemed not quite in place. His presence, even the breath of his lingering in the air makes things uncomfortable for me. Amongst the sea of ladies from diverse races and culture, he stared blankly outside the KTM window into space and nothing seemed to be bothering him despite many ambiguous expressions and frequent stares were thrown in his direction. Ironically, none of the ladies in the ladies’ coach confronted him, nobody seemed to be bothered by his existence, so i conformed to the majority and learnt not to feel anything, he’s just like any other lady in the coach is what i told myself.

Like everyone in the KTM, my attention were drawn to the uninteresting content of my mobile phone. Many pretended to use their samsung galaxies to avoid awkward situations, swiping aimlessly again and again on the exact page, refreshing repeatedly. I was texting my mother about safely boarded the KTM squashed like sardines packed in can. But i left out the detail about the sad looking man sitting just behind my bag. My instinct lead me to switch my backpack to chestpack, something against the law of backpack. It’s ironic how much i tried to prove to everyone i wasn't racist every time, and it all just shot straight back at my face when i encountered such situations. I called it instinct, but more like covert racism. You showed others how perfectly moral and educated you are, but by the end of the day it all just backfires with what you’re trying to portray. Or perhaps, bad cases just kept showing up in the pages of the newspaper everyday that i somehow lost faith in humanity. 

Beside me stood a lady who looked like an indian but doesn't speak the language. She was talking on the phone with someone with language that sounded so different than what we practice here in Malaysia. She was wearing a revealing red checkered shirt, openly okay with it in any sense. She applied very thick and dark eyeliner on both of her eyes which were obviously weary depending on what she'd been through that day. Her palms grasping tight on the handle above our heads, wide stance, trying to defy Newton’s first law of motion. The thing that differs us from the rests is that we’re both not staring at our mobile devices, instead, we were silently watching out for each other’s back. We might be really good friends, but we let that chance slipped. 

Another indian lady came around, still on her work uniform. She was wearing a lethargic expression. In the KTM, she seemed untouchable. I concluded that she had a bad day at work is all. Something caught my attention as an indian college girl stood in front of me. Her t-shirt showing single, taken and in a relationship with freedom (which was ticked). Go figure. A person’s t-shirt shows so much about them. Perhaps she really didn't care that she’s a single lady, or maybe, openly asking for a date as valentines is just around the corner.

Everyone was putting on peculiar expressions, each portraying different stories which no one will ever get to know. There were the excited faces, happy faces while reading their text messages, anger and bored faces. They might be interpreting mine as pervert and strange as i stared at people shamelessly. 

It’s funny how we're so close to one another, our body occasionally touched, but as strangers we are, there were no connections. It contradicts on how everyone wanted to feel belonged, wanted to stay in touch with one another, but none bother to make an effort in knowing each other. There were so many communication and connectivity going on at the tip of their fingertips, they have the whole world! But the world does not revolve around their physical surroundings. Friends, but strangers in many ways. It was just the eerie quietness surrounding the KTM with different stories to tell. 

There were countless things that kept coming up my mind as i stared at the interesting humans’ behaviour. I made assumptions and stories that would never come true. Not in a million years i suppose.

1. The middle-aged man stood up, threatening all the ladies with his parang knife. That is when i will use my Adidas backpack (even though i loved it very much) to defend everyone from his attack. Everyone will join me and together the ladies in the ladies’ coach conquered the dangerous and always-weird-looking man. That explains the weird blue bag and the contents in it placed openly under his feet.

1. Someone in the coach screamed “thief” and my belongings will be where they're supposed to be. My eyes and hands are in excruciating pain from clenching them way too hard. I'm a pro in protecting what’s mine. Baby you're safe with me.

1. Endless staring contest with the indian lady standing in front of me. She do not have the mobility to rotate her body away from my gaze as many people were clamped around her like canned tuna. I will continue staring at her till she felt uncomfortable and decided to walk away at the next stop when things weren't so tight anymore. And i will win the staring contest all by myself, smugly. 

1. There’s a pervert molesting one of the girls in the coach, and i will be the one to catch the molester with my kickboxing skills, proudly returned the girl the justice she deserved and everyone will refer to me as “the heroine”. Some wanted my autograph and a picture taken. 

And the middle-aged man continued staring out the window of the KTM looking at unfinished structures of soon-to-be landmarks of KL, breathing heavily through his nose, with no intention to offend anyone at any cost.