Chinese New Year Day 2

Went to my paternal grandmother's house in AMK to 'visit' her. Sadly, she is no longer around. After that, returned to Ah Ma's house and lounged around idly, snacking away and chatting with Ah Sir, Henglip and Haoling. Realised Ah Ma's fridge had an endless supply (and a great variety too) of sugary drinks. Had lost count of how many cans and packets of Fruittree Orange, Justea, root beer, green tea and chrysanthemum tea that I had downed.

2nd Aunt cultivating ALL to be a devotee of Tua Peh Gong

Haoling and me

ALL did not whine when being carried by 1st Aunt. He probably takes a liking for old ladies. Or he probably mistook 1st Aunt for his grandma.

ALL in 1st Aunt's strong sturdy arms

While we were all bumming around in the living room and complaining that there was nothing to do, the seniors were busy slogging to prepare our dinner in the kitchen. Shame on us!

Here, they were creating a fuss over why the goh hiong skin was so soggy and easily torn. Maybe it was the heat in the kitchen, maybe it was the frustration of having to cook, they were beginning to accuse one another of damaging the goh hiong. Mum was blaming 1st Uncle for forgetting to store the goh hiong in the freezer, and at one point, I was dragged into this crossfire because I was the one who rolled the goh hiong. Ah Ma just sat there silently and watched her daughters squabble.

We chanced upon some newspapers and soon we were engaged in an animated discussion on the Edison 'racy pictures' scandal, followed by a trip to my house because they wanted to witness for themselves the graphic carnality (No, I wasn't the one with those pictures). Ah Sir strongly opposed to taking the lift with us from the 7th floor to the 5th floor, because she felt that it was only 2 storeys and it would not hurt to climb the stairs. We proved that taking the lift was much faster, but she just would not admit defeat, and even pulled some underhand means by pressing the lift button on the 6th floor so as to slow us down.

My, they sure were engrossed!

After that, we returned to Ah Ma's house and went for a few gambling rounds while waiting for dinner to be ready. 2nd Aunt was really sweet to share with me her bowl of turnip soup! Here, she was laughing in amusement because she could not believe I actually whined, pouted and demanded to be fed some turnip.

Say "Aaahhhh"!

Wee subconsciously modelling her sitting posture after 4th Aunt's

Wee and I were walking around in the kitchen casually when we saw 1st Uncle slicing two huge fat pieces of abalone meticulously. We pinched some abalone slices to try, and they certainly whetted our appetites! 1st Uncle painstakingly steamed the can (with the abalone in it) for four hours, and the end-result was tender and full-flavoured abalone slices. After savouring a few pieces, we decided we should not be so greedy and deprive others the chance of eating the abalone, so we left the kitchen. After Wee went back to gambling, I sneakily went back to the kitchen for MORE abalone.

Dinner was finally ready! Beancurd skin with chicken feet, stir-fried vegetables with abalone slices (if there was any left, tee hee!), fried fish in batter, a messy assemblage of chicken and duck parts, bamboo shoots (for Wee) and lots of fried beehoon. I was extremely disappointed that there was not any turnip soup left.

Gambling again. This time, I was seated wedged between Wee and 1st Aunt, and throughout the whole night, 1st Aunt kept scolding me playfully, saying that I am crazy. Ever since young, her perceptions of me were nothing but "ting tong", "hiao za boh" and "siao poh". This year, she added more phrases like "siao ga ah ni kuan", because she could not stand the way I arranged my cards when playing see kee.

2nd Aunt and 4th Aunt looking solemnly

Henglip had a sterling record of losing money during gambling every year. Kar Cheng helped beat the heat in the kitchen by raising the fan up high and swirling it from side to side, making sure the fan coverage reached everyone (yah, right, he couldn't even last for 1 minute doing that). 3rd Aunt was the kopi soh, helping to brew and serve coffee. Haoling and Henglip were singing Timabaland's 'Apologize' the whole night. The aunties could not stand Wee's and my deafening laughter that they kept nagging at us, saying that the police were going to turn up any moment soon. Oh, another classic sarcastic Hokkien retort from the aunties: "赌博不专心!"

Henglip: "Okay, 1, 2 ..."

2nd Aunt: "OOI!"

4th Aunt: "Henglip, 赌博不要不专心 hor!"

Managed to win a few dollars to recoup my losses. Looking forward to going to 2nd Aunt's house tomorrow! We ended the night with such a heartwarming photo of (from left) Ah Sir (She seemed like she was in the middle of singing something), Haoling, Ah Xian, me and 2nd Aunt (who simply loved to exercise creativity: she posed with dollar bills at the chalet, and now with oranges). There is also someone in the picture whom I refuse to comment on. Hint: the spastic cousin who always takes pictures with his back facing the camera.