Of all the years I've known Alan, I've only been to his hometown once or twice to "pai tin kong". Thus, I never really understood why the celebration and what the offerings meant... but that was until I saw a cover story on this significant Hokkien custom... and here's an account on how it went...

To the Hokkiens, "Nin Chor Gau" (the ninth day of CNY) is the most important day in CNY where families come together to celebrate the birthday of Jade Emperor; known as "Tin Kong" to seek blessings with food and prayers.

The prayer usually starts after midnight... i.e. on "Nin Chor Gau" with elaborate food offerings that are arranged in a special manner:

• First comes 3 cups of Chinese tea
• Followed by 5 cups of Rice wine
• Then 3 large joss sticks flanked by 2 candles
• Food offerings would include 5 types of fruits specifically bananas (kean chio), pineapple (ong lai) which means welcoming luck
• Six types of vegetarian items like mushroom, fungus, tofu etc...
• Meat dishes like chicken, fish, pork, prawn...
• Finally sweets like candy, peanuts, "ang koo kueh" (red tortoise cakes) and "kee ya kueh"
• Hard boiled eggs dyed in red and "mee suah" (rice vermicelli) or noodles are must have items

After which, the prayer rituals begin with family members praying and burning their prayer paraphernalia just outside the house. This is then followed by a visit to the temple for more offerings and prayers.

Last but not least, everyone must eat a bowl of "mee suah" with hard boiled eggs... And that marked the end of the "pai tin kung" session. :)

Started work on "Nin Chor Mmm" and one of the most asked questions was this... "How was your Chinese New Year?". My answer? "It was great!!! Why? Cos I received plenty of 'ang paus' lor... hehehehe..."

Here's another view of the 'ang paus' I collected this year:

Lets just say I collected quite a lot la har to justify the reply... 4-figure amount wei! Now isn't that a great reason to be happy? Cos honestly, how often in life do you get money out of the blue! So ya, I love CNY!!!

"Nin Chor Sei" (fourth day of CNY), my parents' friends came for dinner...

This is Auntie Lucy and she has a son who is of my age. Last year, he came with his gf who has now became his ex-gf and surprise, surprise, he's getting married next week; 23 February 2008 to another girl. Since we were of the same age, the father asked me this: "Wahhh... you don't want to get married ar!?!?"... I had to grip the table to answer sweetly that I'm waiting for my place to be ready. But honestly, what has it got to do with these people whether or not I get married leh??? Really "tak faham" lorrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

After that, they proceeded to play "mahjong" AGAIN!

Tomorrow's "Nin Chor Mmm" (the fifth day of CNY) and I'd be starting work di... So to all, "Gong Hei Fatt Choy" once again! :)

On "Chor Sam" (the third day of CNY), we visited my auntie's house for a family lunch...

And in between snapped many photos... I was with my cousin brother (the one on bottom left in the collage below) and we were talking bout ang paus when he said "maemee jie jie, I'm still waiting for yours leh... hehehehe". To which I said: "Er... you can wait la... and btw, how old are you now?"... and he said 18! So we both calculated for awhile before I said "Oh my goodness, I am 11 years older than you are!!!". Tsk tsk tsk... I ain't getting any younger... that's for sure!

Then it was time to go home cos my parents' friends and ahem, my bf's sister who "self-invited" herself...are coming over for dinner. After dinner, they proceeded to play "mahjong"...

While my mummy chit chatted with her friend...

To me... CNY is really an excuse for friends and families to get-together, feast, be merry and get-drunk... :)

One good thing bout CNY has got to be the fact that there is a high possibility of one meeting some long lost relatives... "Nin Chor Yee" (second day of CNY) has always been the day we visit my grandmother.

That was where we met my "ah kim" (the one with specs)... my mother's sister-in-law who remarried some 20 years ago.

I also met my cousin sister whom I have not been in contact with for at least 5 years since she got married...

After that I visited Alan's family in Kuala Selangor. The minute I walked into the house, the sister greeted me enthusiastically and somewhat shoved an "ang pau" in my hand with a huge smile. She then went out of her way to be extra courteous to me throughout the entire day...

One thing bout my bf's family... come CNY, young or old... they will gather around in a big circle for a round of Black Jack... which I too participated. After 4 hours... I only won 10 bucks... which come to think of it, was quite a waste of time but at least I won something la... hehehee.

At the end of the day, when it was time to bid everyone goodbye, the sister "self-invited" herself to my house under the pretext that she wanted to visit my parents with her husband (I missed her wedding last year as I promised myself I'd stay away from her for as long as required). Since she said it in front of her parents and siblings, I couldn't say no...

And that was what happened in Chor Yee... the second day of CNY :)

"Nin Chor Yat" (first day of CNY) is a time where all my relatives will come and pay us a visit. Each and every corner of my house was filled with people... :)

In the living room...

In the dining room...

And even in the kitchen!

Surprisingly... none of my relatives asked me the million dollar question this year... "When are you getting married?". Not even once! I supposed they have given up... cos they were still happily giving me "ang pau"... which I of course am happily receiving... :)

You know for a fact that it's Chinese New Year when you start seeing the colour RED ("Ang" in Hokkien) in everything nearly everywhere you look.

And oh, not just at shopping malls mind you... but at home too... like how plants are suddenly dangling with auspicious symbols with red and gold ribbon, or how red cushions are whipped out of no where...

Or when gifts by relatives are being sent to your home...

But aside from those... to us Chinese... Chinese New Year has got to be the single largest festivity that is celebrated in an elaborate manner. Tonnes of preparations are made before hand to ensure that friends and families' gatherings at home are as comfortable as can be... Think: Cookies, snacks, mandarin oranges, soft drinks and of course... alcoholic beverages!

Today's New Year eve... and a must do on this day is of course the Reunion Dinner.

With that... "maemee" would like to wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year! May the year of Rat brings us many happy returns! Cheers...

Unlike other companies that practices "Sau Kung Jau" before Chinese New Year, our company only has 1 dinner each year... the Annual Dinner... which is understandable given that we have over 3,000 employees...

So this year... my colleagues and I decided to celebrate ourselves and we went to "Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant" at Avenue K. There were plenty of packages to choose from and we selected the RM78 per pax one (normal price: RM138)...

The funny thing bout ordering their package meal is that it comes with a single serving based on number of pax ordered... not a central dish in the middle like other Chinese reaturants... so that means, the portions are kinda mini... This was my portion...

The African abalone was ok... but rather tiny. But since it was only RM78 per pax, can't complain... Of all the dishes... the chicken wing stuffed with glutinous rice has got to be the nicest... as well as their honeydew sago... which tasted like melted ice cream... yummm... :)

On Thursday, the entire Strategic Marketing team took half the day off to go bowling. Yes... of all the things in the world (rolls eyes)... B-O-W-L-I-N-G!!! This was supposedly our team outing this year...

So off we went... to Cosmic Bowl in Mid Valley...

We were all dressed in this personalized black collared T with our names and staff IDs imprinted at the front... and at the back of it... a huge CSI...

The last time I ever bowled was like over 10 freaking years ago! So needless to say... it was a rather embarassing experience...

• I was the first person in our team (of 4 girls) on the chart... and when I first lifted the 9-pound ball, it felt embarassingly HEAVY!!! And ahem... at both times, the ball went into the drain... so I started my chart with a huge shiny ZERO
• Then just when I thought I've started to get a hang of it... the ball slipped from my fingers and flew to the BACK instead... leaving my colleagues screaming!!!

Lucky thing, the rest of my female colleagues weren't way better off... And I noticed, our team seemed to be the noisiest... as in our balls always land with a loud thud before making its way to the pins...

In the end... we just took turns snapping photos... LOL:

And then more people joined in... cos we occupied a total of 11 lanes and my neighbours (to my left and to my right) comprises of more beginners like me... who were far more interested in snapping photos than rolling a freaking 9-12 pound ballssss:

After that, we had to endure a terrible 2-hour drive from Mid Valley to Little Havana to attend our CMO's farewell party.


I love our CMO. He's not just attentive, sharp, smart and intelligent but also kind and humble with a cool sense of humour... So many of us were teary eyed when he first announced his resignation. That night, he whispered something in my ear when I said goodbye...

"Try not to be too stressed up. But if it really gets too stressful, just leave..." and gave me a fierce hug... I'm soooooo gonna miss him and given a chance, I would definitely wanna continue working for him... Sob sob...