Happy Chinese New Year!

There is something about these festive seasons that evoke yearnings for home, and not as much as the CNY season. It has always been associated with family gatherings for me, either in Sibu or Terengganu, and not having a "pilgrimage" somewhere (and more importantly, not having holidays for this important occasion!) made it seem like any other day. That, along with the lack of "atmosphere" around the place - only in Chinatown was there an explosion of red decorations and loud CNY music, reminiscent of home.

However, I did get my precious dose of "family time" this CNY, in the form of a cosy steamboat party with my Sibu cousins Sophia and Oscar, as well as 2 of their friends, on CNY eve. The 6 of us (Jamie came along too) had a great time over the delicious steamboat food (we had prawns, which is what really matters!), and we did something quite important to do during important Chinese cultural days - speak Chinese. The conversation was mainly in Mandarin, with bits of Foochow and me bungling everything up and resorting to English. I don't think my CNY would have been complete though, without that sprinkling of some dialect or another - and this time the Foochow was like music to my ears.

Homemade CNY goodies made their way to me here too, thanks to my mom's friend's friend, and the loving hands back home who made and packed the box. And since I couldn't really invite people over to enjoy the food, the food did some walking and went to OCF, church, football practice and Kingston Hospital. Most of it, though, was preserved until the 1st day of CNY, when they were readily consumed by my fellow housemates, in between the steamboat dinner and games of Cho-Tai-Ti and mahjong.

And of course, a CNY abroad wouldn't be complete without calls back home to speak with more family. Thank goodness for free minutes! Everyone from my mother's side is at my Kuching home now, getting ready to celebrate my aunt's marriage (and leaving me here feeling sorry I'm not there) so my call home must have been passed to a record number of people! It was nice hearing their voices again though, and comforting that I can still recognise their voices without having to look at their faces!

To my family back home, happy celebrating the marriage, and to my Aunty Ling, congratulations!

And to those still celebrating CNY, a very prosperous Pig year!