Having A Swine of A Time!

Chinese New Year. One of the most important periods to the Chinese. It starts off traditionally on the eve with reunion dinner with the family, followed by days filled with exchanges of well wishes and oranges, the giving of red packets by married couples and loads of feasting on goodies like these... ...

My beautifully decorated Christmas tree that was up in December was replaced by this plant, which is supposed to bring luck if it blooms a spray of white flowers.

Then for the next 3 days, we're stuck with Indian or Muslim cuisine, simply because all the chinese food stall owners are off celebrating. So it's a good thing my grandmother still bothers and enjoys cooking. As such, we had a scrumptious spread of chinese dishes amidst the catered Indian / Muslim food.

Of course, not forgetting the "lo hei" sessions where everyone is supposed to "lo" the ingredients as high as possible, and shout out some 4-worded "cheng yu" to wish each other prosperity and luck.

My cousins and I were given this huge plate to "lo". Given our proficiency in the mother tongue, here were some of the exchanges:

- nian nian you yu
- bu bu gao sheng
- feng he re li
- da ji da li
- xin xiang shi cheng
- bu yao chi ji dan
- bu yao diao zai wo de shou

"feng he re li"?? Kayestercan, I know it's a "cheng yu", but as far as I know, I have been taught to use this to start off chinese compositions to increase word count.

"bu yao chi ji dan"?? This came from The Anaesthetist, for the cousins and her daughters who are still schooling, to score anything but zero marks in their exams.

"bu yao diao zai wo de shou"?? Ok, ok, I think this was in reference to RT "lo-ing" too high and dropping all the ingredients onto The Psychiatrist's hand.

Is it really that a convent girl's chinese just cannot be anything but atrocious? :p

And last but not least, the lunar new year is hardly complete without a session or two of these... ...