traditional

Since 2007, my female owner never really celebrated Chinese New Year the traditional way.

2007 – She was sent off to USA for some conference by her ex-office. Something which she resisted and objected to, but nonetheless, had no power to reject. She ended up travelling from Maryland to Washington DC on CNY, saw snow falling for the first time in her life, and erm, cried over the phone as she spoke to her then-boyfriend (who did not offer much comfort coz he was greatly unhappy that she extended her trip at Maryland to explore other states).

2008 – She had to go to Brisbane a few days before CNY because university started earlier that year and to settle essential things like housing, banking and other registrations. Her mother was with her and they ended up having a reunion dinner with her host and aunt’s friends.

2009 – She made the conscious effort to extend her stay in Singapore (during her summer break) so that she could celebrate CNY with her relatives. Alas, her mother told her last minute that they were not celebrating/ visiting anyone (for unstated reasons). Hence my female owner, I believe, ended up in Chinatown with Librarian Fren on CNY’s eve, soaking up the festive mood and to her surprise, managed to get most of her Impromptu Frens to come together for badminton during CNY (doesn’t anyone celebrate CNY nowadays?)

2010 – Probably the most “cut-off” CNY for my female owner coz her family is in three different countries at the moment. My female owner ended up having a CNY dinner with her church frens – steamboat and home-made yu sheng! Towards the end of the party, the owner of the house (i.e. the person who was renting the house) asked her “later you are staying around for a while right?” Ah, she caught the underlying invitation to stay back for drinks (my female owner hasn’t figured out why he identified her as a drinking mate coz they never drank together before) and of course she did. Yyou know how much she enjoys drinking with nice company. Five of them, chilling out to piano music, spontaneous topics, trying out differ concoctions over a bar counter (my female owner says her friend really had the air of a bartender) and best of all, my female owner didn’t get tipsy. 5 drinks, a comfortable limit.

Cheers to more good times ahead!