Where fairytales meet reality: My CNY Diary

It's already the 10th day of Chinese New Year! My family and I spent the week before Chinese New Year doing last minute decorating and cleaning. Fishes made of red packets were hung on trees, and the red lanterns and cloth were all hung up in front of the main door.

On the day before Chinese New Year itself, we literally was in the kitchen the whole time. In the morning, mom prepared the foods for offerings. Steamed chicken, barbecued pork, you name it. My kitchen is pretty small and tight, so the more the messier, and not merrier as expected. Because it was so small, we had a schedule so as we would not have to fight over the use of the kitchen. The main dishes were to be cooked in the morning. After lunch, my siblings and I had the total use of the kitchen and we made jelly! In the evening, we made glutinous rice balls and at night, we made this ~~I have no idea what it's called! Can anyone enlighten me?~~ special sesame ball with dried persimmon filling known to me as "Yau Chi".

Lunch. My favourite dish is the seafood dish :) My mom only cooks this once a year though, and it has all the yummy yummy YUMMY scallops, sea cucumber, mushrooms and abalone!

I MADE IT! *pats self on the back*

Oh, and we had Red Grape Sparkling Juice. Ever since I brought back an extra bottle of sparkling juice from the supermarket, my brother has been obsessed with it. I had this phobia that Red Grape is gonna taste like some foul-tasting wine, but it turned out pretty awesome! If ribena with Sprite is your cup of tea, go for this!

The fruit jelly that my siblings and I made. I couldn't resist adding the "2 thumbs up" sign! XD

First Day of Chinese New Year - February 14th 2010

Woke up early, greet parents, relatives and grandmother. Receives Angpows :)

Ate tong yun and many other cookies for breakfast. Parents had mom's vegetarian dish which I have no pictures of. Uncle came over and the adults played Mahjong non-stop for a few hours. Even though it was the first day of Chinese New Year, we ordered Domino's for lunch. (Yess, I know! Domino's for lunch on CNY)

Went to maternal grandfather's place for dinner at night. It's our usual routine every CNY, to go back to his house on the night of the first day of CNY. I despise answering questions like, "So, how are your studies now?" and the infamous, "So how long are your holidays?" @_@

Went to Thean Hou Temple at night for photos :)

Dad wanted to try out his skills with his Canon 5D Mark II :P

Second Day of Chinese New Year - February 15th 2010

Went to grandaunt's house for a gathering with cousins who have not seen her since....a long time ago. Ate cookies, more cookies and MORE COOKIES. No decent photo of us all, just random, candid ones of us talking or laughing. Also went to another aunt's house where I gambled. ( for the first time) If you really wanted to know, it was Blackjack and we were playing for 10 cents. ~~Haha!~~

Third Day of Chinese New Year - February 16th 2010

Went to 1U to buy tickets for a movie. Reach there at 11.30am and the queue was already way up till the escalator. Nope, only few non Chinese were there. In fact, the whole queue was practically a gathering for the Chinese. Reached the ticketing counter at 12.30pm and bought the second row from the screen. Headed over to Uptown for lunch. Ordered dry hor fun, my new favourite! and gave it 9/10. Brother's fried kuey teow wasn't bad either, and I gave it 7.5/10. My sister's steamed egg with rice was given 6/10 as I felt that the egg was a little dry and not to my liking.

Because we were going for a movie at night, mom decided to cancel our plan to visit a temple and instead go for a joy-ride / sightseeing / tour around KL.

If only we could stop by somewhere and visit those places like any tourist would! We literally did not stop, and so these shots were taken in the car.

Later in the evening, we head over to 1U for our movie.

Watching a comedy 2 rows away from the screen isn't funny at all. Though it was GSC, it still wasn't comfortable. Oh, and did I mention? While waiting in line to get tickets to the above movie, I saw trailers of Remember Me and When in Rome! No, I don't think it's based on the novel by Sophie Kinsella but still....IT HAS ROBERT PATTINSON in it! Let's all go watch and see for real how he's like OUTSIDE the Twilight Saga.

Fourth Day of Chinese New Year - February 17th 2010

Went to Fo Guang San Temple!

The 4 main pilgrimage sites; Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar

More pictures around the temple!

Fifth Day of Chinese New Year - February 18th 2010

Had lunch at New Restaurant Ipoh Chicken Rice at Jalan Gasing. Food was great although I didn't eat much :P

Hot day + 7Eleven = Persuade mom to let us have Slurpee

It's really amazing that only during the CNY festivities that we are allowed to eat all the unhealthy foods in unbelievable amounts.

Yeap, as I have said earlier, Sparkling Juice Obsession. This time around, its Peach!

Sixth Day of Chinese New Year - February 19th 2010

We sort of celebrated my brother's birthday early. Went for dinner at The Ship where my brother ordered Seafood Au Gratin.

If you have added him on Facebook, you would've noticed this picture on his wall.

He got FOOD POISENING right after eating this very delicious cheesy meal. Haha. Wouldn't want to repeat his ordeal right after eating it, but PLEASE, try not to order this whenever you go there.

Seventh Day of Chinese New Year - February 20th 2010

Brother's Birthday!

And he couldn't celebrate much, what with his tummy aching and all, thanks again to Seafood Au Gratin.

Nevertheless, we managed a feast. Blueberry Youghurt Cake was AWESOME! Not too sweet, not too creamy, not too fruity. It was heaven!

If you noticed, there's that familiar bottle of Sparkling Juice hanging around in my photos. Its Violette. A little berry-ish :)

Went to Green View for dinner. Booked a table for 5 at 8.30pm but when we got there, we couldn't find our table. Luckily, the waiter managed to get us a table in the end! As usual, Salmon Yee Sang was what we began with! And then followed by the very unenvironmental friendly albeit delicious shark fin's soup.

After dinner, we got back home to rest. Dad opened a can of Heineken and Sprite and we were all curious so we surrounded him to get a taste of it. It was my second attempt at tasting beer, the first being Anchor, and nevertheless, it tastes bitter. Even after adding Sprite, it was bitter. Suprises me how alcoholics drink bitter drinks to release and escape themselves from the bitter world. Anyway, brother couldn't resist temptation and took a Shandy from the refrigerator. My first time with Shandy. Yeap, Total Alcohol Virgin XD