Now that CNY is fully over, as promised, here is my massive catchup post about Chinese New Year and the wonderful times I’ve had so far. Unfortunately, the holidays are over, and it’s back to CVS and reality…
I’m having problems with posting pictures in wordpress, so there will be none here…
This year was more relaxed than the last, but we visited a lot of houses! A typical CNY for me would have the first three days filled up with visiting relatives (and collecting the redly-packaged blessings, hehe).
First day saw me decked out in a white cheongsam with blue trimmings–it’s actually one of mum’s new cheongsams, but she let me have it. Thanks mum! Second day, I wore my mum’s dress (the same one she wore to the marriage registry yeaaaaars ago). Third day was a new beachy dress I picked up from Monizal, a boutique in Amcorp Mall. It’s awesome being the same size and height as your mum, haha.
I made it a point to take as many pictures of the festivities and fellowship at the different houses this year, because when I looked back at last year’s CNY pics, they were few and far in between. No vibrancy, no energy, no stories hidden within them. SO this year, I have many many more candids, and I rallied more family to take photos together. :) We also visited my mum’s side of the extended family tree for the first time–my maternal grandfather’s sister-in-law, who lives in Kundang, which is on the way to Rawang. I discovered a bunch more cousins I’d never met before in my life…
Besides that, my elder cousins on my dad’s side saw it fit to begin passing down the skills of chor dai di (big two). Haha! Kong Jin & Kong Qian taught my younger cousin, Kok Weng, how to play. :P And there was another cute kid that was the son of one of the other relatives who came to play… His dad also was coaching him. Dai tao har la, all these people! But it was all in good fun. Kong Qian kept bringing up the notion of playing with money, but it didn’t happen. Awwww.
Once again, it was food overload. One of the dangers of CNY is that if you don’t regulate your snacking at every house you visit, you’re bound to gain a lot of unwanted physical bonuses by the end of the celebrations. Cellulite anyone? x__x Economic recession my FOOT, because we were still fed extremely well at each house we visited! There was abundant yee sang, pineapple tarts, cookies, har pang, nga ku, steamboat, mandarin oranges, vegetarian dishes, noodles, ice cream, savoury treats… Whoo. I had to restrain myself from over-eating, even though ALL the foods that pop up during CNY are among my favorites.
Ang pau earnings were a larger haul than before. :) Hooray for being unmarried & Chinese! Let me ask you this, though. ;) What does a girl do with all the extra pocketmoney she received?
Give up? :)))
Well… Click to read more.
THIS:
Day 4 of CNY saw us ladies traipsing into KL’s Asian Heritage Row for our Chinese New Year Ladies’ Night Extravaganza! ;D The idea was that we all had to wear either an accessory or piece of clothing that was RED, to symbolize the ong-ness of the season. For those on which you don’t see a hint of red, think of the layers underneath. ;))) Soooo much potential, eh? This event is also covered in Cecilia’s, Rae’s, and Jessica’s blog.
Let me backtrack a little bit. Thursday the 22nd of Jan was Cecilia’s farewell, Live for SUGAR!, because she’s left IMU Dentistry to go study Dentistry in the U of Adel. :( I didn’t have the time to post up pics and stuff about the event, but it’s all in my Facebook album for those interested. And besides, the event has already received sufficient coverage in her own blog, hehe. Go see! During her afterparty (which was also at AHR), Cecilia, Lilian, Rae, & myself club-hopped and took advantage of the ladies’ night privileges. We had SO much fun we decided to do it again! Hence the outing on the 4th day.
Lilian couldn’t make it this time because she was tired, though, so instead, our entourage consisted of myself, Cecilia, Rae, Sarah (David’s sister), Jessica (David’s sister’s friend), David (for protection, lol), Sufen, and Nana (Suf’s friend). Suf and Nana came by later, when we had hopped to the third club, but we still had a ton of fun. :)
Our night began at Mojo, because we came a little too early for Upstairs@ The Loft. Mojo had a promotion for ladies’ night too, and we each got a cocktail called “The Naughty Patient”. HAHA. How apt for the budding doctor & dentist… David had a beer, and then we went to Maison to get David in. It was SO empty!
After visiting Maison, we all piled into Upstairs@ The Loft to get our free champagne! Whee. Every group of four ladies before 11pm gets a free bottle of champagne. Not the greatest tasting stuff around, but hey, it’s free. We *did* arrive a littttleee late, but the bouncers were really nice and let us have the bottle anyway, since they saw us there way before opening time earlier, haha. One of them even wished us Happy CNY in Chinese (he was Malay)! :P
Music was about the same as the Thursday of Ceci’s farewell–the DJ played good songs, BUT he changed songs too fast and too frequently. Couldn’t get in the zone for dancing, so we eventually left for our next destination: Bar Club! It was SO quiet when we went in, and we were greeted super-enthusiastically by the bouncers. The nice bartender we met last week (who made us awesome-tasting strawberry daiquiris & treated us to a flaming lamborghini on the house) wasn’t there… So another guy mixed us our drinks.
I DUNNO WTH HE MIXED, but it tasted really, really bad. I could taste pineapple, but I had no idea what else was in there. So sorry man, but it just didn’t please the tastebuds… We stayed for a while to dance, and some people began to file into the club. However, we left soon because we all felt the lure of Maison‘s music.
Before we spent the rest of our night dancing at Maison, we stopped by Space. Sadly, it was House music, and not our favourite Hip-hop/R’n'B, so we only camwhored inside. It looks really cool and has a under-construction feel to it which I liked, but there were only GUYS inside (who wolf-whistled at us as we were leaving, so uncool). There was a bouncer there who we nicknamed “Moto Moto” ala the male hippo from Madagascar 2 because he was huuuuuge hahaha.
Last and final stop of the night: Maison! As per last week’s visit, the music was AWEEESOME and very danceable. Played allllllll my favorite songs. I was definitely satisfied, and danced until my legs were numb once again, haha. The other girls got tired pretty fast, though. Cecilia had to leave early because her parents were waiting up… But I think she had fun. :)) Hope you reallllyyyy enjoyed the night Ceci!
Later when I had exhausted myself more (thanks for waiting, girls), we all left for good ol’ PJ. 7 people squeezed into my poor little Lolita-chan (Peugeot 206)… BUT WE MADE IT! Even crossed a roadblock, hahahaha.Thanks to Nana for navigating, since the rest of us are n00b at KL roads. :P
So that’s the story of the CNY Ladies’ Night Extravaganza. :) Heh. I felt a little bad because we just went in for free drinks and left each club quite fast, but mehh. We came more to dance/camwhore, so we looked for places where we’d best enjoy ourselves.
The rest of my CNY was filled with random dinners with friends, more angpau rounds, and lots of snacking…
The “music” part of my blogpost title relates to this:
During CNY, I spent about half a day working on just the “backbone” and instrumental (more on his part), while I hovered around pretending to be useful (and camwhored). It’s really something, though–can’t wait to showcase it! Can’t wait for it to be reeeaaaddddyyy..!! Come on Ming, work faster! >(
HE ALSO CONNED ME INTO BRINGING MY CHEONGSAM AND THEN MADE ME WEAR IT IN FRONT OF HIS WHOLE FAMILY. I’m a shy person la. But to be fair, he wore what he calls his Cina shirt, and we went for dinner at Sushi Zanmai @ OU. He does this whole awkward smile thing for photos while bunching up his shoulders, which I now term the “Ming smile”, hahahahaha.
Anyway. Doing music stuff or hanging out with him is therapeutic. Peaceful. A little bit like escapism. So weird, but so awesome. Just makes me forget about everything else for a little while.
So that’s my CNY, in one giant nutshell. :) One giant happy nutshell.
BUT IT’S ALL OVER NOW. D: Come again next year, happymoneytimes!
Tags: chinese new year, clubbing, events, family, outings
