new blogger, new post, (chinese) new year
It's been quite a while since I last posted. For some strange reason, Blogger has forced me to upgrade to the new Blogger. I couldn't figure out a way to bypass the switch to the new Blogger. I generally don't like that it's now tied to a Gmail account. I guess it's Google's way of flexing its muscle and getting more people under their membership. I hope it doesn't mean more spam.Well, since I've been forced to migrate, I figure that I should blog to commemorate this? I dunno. Recently there's been many events that have happened, but I don't really feel like writing them down right now, although with things like G's wedding and Mrs Fox's wedding, it would be nice to document them. But right now don't exactly feel like to doing so.
Chinese New Year has always been a little strange to me. I generally don't find it a very interesting public holiday. Maybe it's just the kantang* in me. Note: you need to pronounce kantang like an ang moh for full effect. Kan (Can, as in can of beer) Tang (Tang, as in Tang dynasty). Not how the actual pronunciation is - which is more like "cun-tongue".
Chinese New Year has sort of lost its magic for me. When I was a kid, I used to have the same schedule each year. On the New Year's eve, I'd go to my paternal grandparents' place and have reunion dinner. I always didn't enjoy myself, because my sister and I are the oldest cousins and I also am not able to connect with my extended paternal family. That's a result of difference in backgrounds and world view, I guess. In my teenage, angsty years, I would eat very little, then be on my own, reading a book or something. I didn't enjoy myself. It's probably significant then that I don't even know some of my cousin's names. Yes, be shocked. I just don't like hanging out with them. And I think, in general, my paternal family is not close. My dad has 4 brothers and 4 sisters. At this year's reunion dinner, we started at about 6.30pm and most people had left by 7.45pm.
The schedule would continue the next day, with church in the morning (including the collection of blessed oranges, which somehow always seem quite sweet). We would then go to my paternal grandparents' place, eat cheng teng my grandmother would make, then at about 11.30am, head off to my maternal grandmother's place for lunch. This is the part of CNY which is more fun. I'm no longer one of the oldest, but one of the youngest. I look up to my two older guy cousins, Cedric and Ivan, as idols, to a certain extent. They both went to VS and VJC and I followed in their footsteps, maybe because I wanted to be like them. After lunch, it would be hanging out in the living room, watching whatever music awards show or beauty pageant they would have on TV and making fun of everything. Most people gamble during CNY, but my family didn't really after my maternal grandfather became sick. My paternal grandfather forbade gambling, so my CNY seems rather different from others.
Sometimes, I think that I'm going to be the one in my family that is the weak link for family contact. I sometimes feel that I'm closer to my friends than my family. This is a rambling post, and I'm sorry about that. Not very cohesive in terms of thought these days. It's sometimes just a waste that I don't treasure the family moments more.
With that, I end my first post for the year of the pig. Incidentally, I love eating pork.
*kantang = potato. Means that a chinese person eats potatoes instead of rice - more westernised/anglo-fied. Generally "kantang" people can't speak mandarin or any other chinese dialect or speak it poorly.
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