The City Never Sleeps

Seems that Year of the Pig wasn't on my side, though the Chinese says this is the year of the Golden Pig.

1st, let's talk about...Spring Cleaning + Decorations. Time was simply rushing without any sympathy for the modern day workers. Thus, floors were not scrub, walls were not given a fresh coat of paint. And that's all i can say. These are the only 2 tasks that were left undone. Last minute decorations were done by buying decos on sale in Chinatown on CNY eve.

2nd, Reunion dinner. Dad complained that i had too little for dinner. Yeah, but i must reserve some space for kuih tarts aka pineapple cookies n tarts, peanut cookies, beer, chips, candies and tonnes of junks...

3rd, Rip Curl slippers. My slippers suffered by stepping on those sticky candy wrappers while stuffing packet jellies and mochis in big plastic bag for $5. Unleash of the kiasu instinct. :P

4th, Movies. Indecisive on movies to catch for CNY this year. While Ronny Yu's Fearless and Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha had Jet Li slashing and kicking ass on big screen, with Zhang Ziyi and Miclelle Yeoh pairing up to have some girlie fights with Gong Li last year, i am seeing Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson screwing their ass in the laundry room in Little Children and Daniel Wu trying to save his ass from Andy Lau and the baddies in Protege this year. Did not get to see Dame Judi Dench showing off her lesbian instinct towards Cate Blanchette in Notes on a Scandal this year, but did saw Forest Whitaker showing off his murderous charm by hanging human beings alive in the airport's duty free shop in Last King of Scotland a week before CNY.

5th, TV Shows. As i do not usually go visiting relatives in CNY (for everyone are enjoying and feasting in M'sia, while i had work to be done in S'pore), TV becomes the best companion. However, CNY programmes fails me this year, except the return of Mrs Pearlyn Chew and her funny Pernakan household in Ways of the Matriach: A Very Nyonya New Year Special on every Wed at 9.30pm on Arts Central.

6th, Singapore River Hongbao. Loss of cultural touch, gain in commercial benefits. In a nutshell: the big angpow this year = any neighbourhood pasar malams. And do not compare them with Pasar Malams in M'sia. Simply a blasphemy.

But something nice that i saw this year...

1st, visiting. Lawrence and Jess made a trip to my place, and in return, i visit Jess's family and a lovely lunch. Could remember how cheeky Lawrence said to Jess by calling her Ah Lin. In return, Jess called Lawrence 'uh that uncle...'

2nd, New Year Clothing Shopping. In my previous blog, you will see that i gotten a full set of New Year gown from Celio+ Skinxwear+Puma. Now introducing Esprit. Total: a beautiful fighure of $246. And imagine $246 is only a fraction of the total expenditure of new clothings and shoes for the whole year.

3rd, Home Alone. YES!! FREEDOM!! But no freedom to cook though...

4th, Munching of Junks. Yes... Bad for health and fattening... But i love it. Who cares? And i think i am becoming a pig specially for this year...

And before saying bye bye...

Rodney, my son, would like to wish all readers Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Yes, yes, yes. Chinese New Year is coming.

And it is coming at an very scary speed. (Talking about speed, it seems that CNY has come slightly later, compared to the porevious years.)

So, as usual, this is the ritual to CNY: spring cleaning, CNY shopping (and this refers to furnitures and deco, food, clothings, electronics etc etc etc...), sitting round the table for reunion dinner (think a big family of 3 generations sitting around a round table saying yum seng, gong xi gong xi...), pay respect to seniors and wait for your ang pow collection (which makes the kids and the unmarried personnel, especially me, happy. Hee.), counting down to the arrival of CNY, visiting friends and relatives, go movie, see the river red packet (and i am referring to CNY Singapore River Hongbao, locating beside the Esplanade.) and...do what you want to do but you don't have time to do now.

While X'mas is one big thing to the S'poreans, CNY is another big thing to S'poreans. Talking about CNY shopping, youths today spares no mercy when it comes to CNY shopping for clothes. However, some of the fashion retailers doesn't seems to be very generous when it comes to giving discounts to shoppers.

Still, that doesn't stops youths from getting what they want. And as for me, the shopping spree on the weekend did nothing but burnt a very big hole on my wallet.

And this is what i bought:

Puma El Rey Tweed $79.

Skinxwear Trunks and Briefs $35 (and my colleague said that i took a really good care for my 'little bro', for i wear nothing but branded briefs.

And 3 weekends ago...

Shirt+Jeans+Socks from Celio: $100.

And not forgetting the upcoming 2 tees from Esprit...