CNY 2008, with lotsa pics

CNY has always been an exciting affair for me. For me, the excitement itself is actually the preparation in welcoming the new year. However, this year, I only got back to kampung on the eve itself, due to some commitments. Here are some pics showing how I usher in the new year, and also as a reminder to myself on how to keep the traditions alive...

This year's CNY celebration started a few days earlier before the eve, as most of the family members are already working and have their own families in KL, so we decided to have our dinner 5 days before the actual CNY. Here in this pic, showing my grandaunt (standing) saying prayers (my late granduncle was a pastor...). On her left is my other grandaunt (I don't know how to say it, but she's my grandmother (on the standing grandaunt's right) sis in law. The family has grown to having Buddhists, Christians, Catholics members, but I'm still waiting if we can add Muslims & Hindus and maybe some other unknown religion in the family.. maybe in the future.

On the eve's morning, we put food on the tables at the front of the house, inviting our ancestors for a meal. Here, we are inviting my grandfather, grandmother & greatgrandmother (all from my mother's side). I had to help to set up the table, only had a few hours of sleep as I had just arrived that morning itself

Ahh.. the coin throwing ceremony..

Combination of head & tail means they have arrived (and is supposedly sitting on the chairs now!!). Head + Head or Tail + Tail combinations means they're not here yet.

Burning notes for the ancestors...

At 12am.. marking the 1st day of new year, we pray to Thee Kong...

On the 2nd day, we went to the temples to pray.. the place was packed!

the temple sifus checking your DOB (from western to chinese date) & writing them down in a letter to pray to 太岁

ahh.. the black figure is太岁 himself, the sifu is doing the prayers

then we went to another temple.. the buddhist temple...

this tree in the buddhist temple has been here for all I can remember, it was already here when I started coming to this temple more than 20 years ago. I decided to check if there was any description, and.. voila! it says it was planted back in 1887 (or 1889).. can't remember.. fuiyoh!

well.. what to do when all the shops are closed & you got nowhere to go? glad to know I've not lost my skills despite not playing for more than 6 months! siapa mau chalen sama gua ahh?

karaoke back in my hometown.. a dodgy, dark place.. went with seluar pendek & selipar jepun oso can! fuiyoh.. this place even got tiongkok mali punya GROs..

meet-up with some friends..

party.. lai lai lai.. ciak ciak ciak.. lim lim lim.. lim kah toh. Every year, my friend will have a party at his house. This year tells a lot about us growing up. I remember for few years consecutively, I'd always end up drunk. This year, we can actually see the younger generation (my friend's younger brother & his friends) drinking the most. When challenged to drink, I'd always have reasons to "siam" from drinking more.. This is the only year I never got drunk at all since I was introduced to alcohol. I hardly even touch a ciggy... err.. well I had one, but not more than that..

no matter how grown up you are, old habits die hard... probably they'll never die off.. I just watched, as I don't fancy gambling..

How can CNY be complete without talking (eating mostly) about food? Here's a favourite must-have dish.. the Fuchow fishballs. As a Fuchow this is a must & besides this meal, we had red rice wine mee suah as well.


A close-up. Minced pork inside the fishballs. They cost 65 cents per piece this year! I remember it was 50 cents last year.. it just keeps on increasing. We usually order a couple of hundreds of these juicy stuff. I don't eat much of pork, but even so, this is a must!

So far, this has been a great CNY celebration & I hope for the best for this rat year!

Public Speaking

that's me.. top left hand corner

Speaking in front large audience comes with my job as a S&M (sales & marketing.. not the other S&M) person as I have to travel around South East Asia giving presentations to customers. Slowly but surely, after I've gotten used to the situation, the thrill & excitement overcame the fear, and last year after a presentation in Pertronas Kerteh, my reps told me that I just gave one of the most convincing presentation ever. Boy, oh boy.. was I fucking high after that..

Just a week before CNY, I was invited by Petronas to give a presentation in a resort in Melaka with regards to our products. Public speaking has never been a problem for me as I remember winning best speaker in primary school, but somewhere along the way, the guts to do so vanished. I don't know what happened, as I've never experienced anything unpleasant while doing so. I guess the problem is when you grow up, sometimes you become to self-concious. I've read in many articles regarding public speaking, that it is the most feared thing by most people, even more feared than death itself. You can gauge how you performed, by the interest generated after the presentation by the questions they asked about your products. I remember a conversation with one of Petronas' engineer (roughly as follows):

Petronas engineer: Where did you study?
Rockstar: UKM
Petronas' engineer: Oh patutlah.. english you bagus.
Rockstar: Huh? **thinking**
Petronas' engineer: Which part of UK?
Rockstar: Eh.. UKM.. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia... bukan UKlah..

All I could say to myself after that was... "Whatever you need next time.. bring it on" I'm so in cloud nine...

Next stop, singing in public.. kakaka...

Mentally Tired..

strange.. sometimes they do know exactly how I feel.. I turn to them for solace..

Life's sometimes feels like a heavy burden, with all those things you need to juggle, work, life, money... damn.. feels like the world is upon your shoulders. Sometimes, the thought of just letting it go running to some other place (taking my money with me.. hehe) where you can start anew with no worries comes to the mind...

Uggghh.. heavy load..