Reunion

Reunion Dinners are always tricky affairs, requiring nimble maneuvres through the minefield of family politics once the family's all grown up and married off. Fortunately in ours, it's been made less tricky by events in recent years. This is the first year we had to negotiate it from different households, since we'd all finally moved out into our own little piece of haven from the madding crowd.

It wasn't a difficult decision to make - choosing to hold our reunion dinner in a restaurant, since we are neither great nor enthusiastic cooks. We picked the eve of the eve of the Lunar New Year, which was probably a wise choice too, since we didn't have to fight for a table with the hordes of people out having THEIR reunion dinners.

On the eve itself, I joined an old friend's family reunion dinner at home. For a change, they decided against their usual one-dish meal and her mum cooked up a typical Cantonese style "3 dishes and 1 soup" meal. No mean feat, considering her mum was working in the morning half of the day, and spent the afternoon rushing around trying to find a stall open for her lunch, and then had to fight the crowds headed home on the bus. Earlier in the day, I had foolishly left my errands til noon to run, and ran smack into the crazy mob "looting" the supermarket. Judging by the speed at which goods were emptied from the shelves, you'd have thought we were going to war and needed to stock up on food for the coming months of hardship! Swept away by the low hum of desperation amongst the shoppers, I did some "looting" of my own, panic-strickened that I would be left stranded with no food in the fridge at home and no hawker stalls open over the festive holidays. Dying of starvation in the beginning of the Lunar Year would NOT bode well for a prosperous and fulfilling Year of the Rat to come...

We also chose to cross over into the Year of the Rat, watching a silly movie - Ah Long Pte Ltd. While Fann's acting abilities leave much to be desired, Mark's Malaysian-Chinese accent and acting was hysterical throughout. What better way to start the year than to burst out laughing until tears come to your eyes? 2 thumbs-up (out of 4. But I'm biased towards comedies!).

Meawhile, Day 1 of the Lunar Year is being spent decadently sleeping in, and taking my time over a delicious brunch and a pot of Yorkshire tea. All this while decked up in a green tank top and an olive pair of berms, as I was advised to wear green on the first day. :)

在此恭祝大家在新的一年里，找到自己的幸福！每天都开开心心！无忧无虑！