Chinese New Year Day 3

Off to 2nd Aunt's house today, but before that, went with Ah Ma, 4uth Aunt and Uncle, and Henglip to Ah Ma's brother's house. Was indignant to learn that Ah Ma's brother is an old and shameless two-timer.

Moved on to 2nd Gim's house next, which was just opposite of 2nd Aunt's block. Was feeling hungry, so pigged out on her home-made cheng tng (which had my favourite sago balls and dried longans!), soon kueh, organic cashew nuts, seaweed sheets and mulberry juice. Another spastic look from my cousin Kar Cheng.

Enjoying my cheng tng

Then it was slacking (and snacking) around in the living room, with the older folks engaging in some bitching sessions, 2nd Gim showing off Ah Bee's graduation photos, and 4th Aunt playing around with a German Shepherd stuffed toy.

4th Aunt felt she would look chic if she carried the German Shepherd around in her tote bag (a la Paris Hilton)

Everyone watching in amusement as 4th Aunt petted the non-living dog

We then moved on to 2nd Aunt's house, helped Ah Sir set up her comp, watched ALL bathe and gambled for a few rounds, before making our way to Gim Tim for our yu sheng dinner (courtesy of a very generous 2nd Gim). As usual, we sat at our 'kiddie' table (with Ah Ping, Weibing, ALL, Ah Sir, Wee, Kar Cheng, Henglip, Ah Xian, Haoling, Ah Hao and me) and waited impatiently for dinner to start. The first dish, yu sheng, arrived (no abalone slices this year), and everyone was standing and poised with their chopsticks between their fingers, ready to fling ('toss' is too mild a word to be used) the yu sheng contents out of the plate. We were supposed to say aloud auspicious 4-character Chinese wishes as we flung the yu sheng bits, but stupid Kar Cheng was reciting some nonsensical curses instead.

Up went the turnip strips and golden crackers (and down they landed onto the table)

Howling in laughter at Kar Cheng's idiocy

Shark's fins soup was the next dish, and just like last year, Ah Ping and I insisted on our portions not to contain any of those gross bean sprouts. Ah Sir absolutely abhorred the cruel practice of extracting the fins from the sharks, but Wee and I were more than happy to covet her bowl of the delicious broth. What followed was herbal chicken (which became a messy heap of meat strands and bones within minutes), steamed fish in soya sauce (Wee and I would always be the last scavengers picking the flesh off the bones clean), stir-fried veggies with scallops and cuttlefish (which was really good), broccoli with tau pok stuffed with oysters and fa cai, fried (or rather, charred) rice wrapped in lotus leaf, and lastly, the evergreen favourite yam paste (which came in disappointingly small portions).

Stir-fried veggies with scallops and squid

Sweet photo of Haoling, me, Wee, Ah Ping and Kar Cheng

Can't get enough of this (especially the crunchy corn bits)!

We had a joyous time recollecting memories of our childhood years and laughing hysterically about them. We recalled: how I nearly drowned Wee at the Big Splash; Ah Gim bringing Ah Sir, Kar Cheng and Wee to the zoo; how we went on our path of destruction every CNY by burning bundles of fire sparklers and causing the corridor along Ah Ma's house to be shrouded in a toxic haze; how I was so naturally black that they would mock me 'Bangali'; how Henglip was so afraid of ghosts yet we would still terrorise him with horror stories during our annual chalets; 4th Aunt, Ah Ma and Mum would bring Wee, Kar Cheng, Henglip, Ah Xian and me to the market where we would eat roti prata with sugar and spend our little pocket money on stickers and 明星偶像卡; Wee's collection of Dragonball comics, Nintendo games and her self-drawn comics at Ah Ma's house; Ah Xian's and my joint birthday parties where we and our only guests, Kar Cheng and Henglip, would be wearing colourful masks and blowing on whistles from our party packs; how the mischievous Ah Bee, Henglip and me would always vex our mothers because we would always be running all over the place and doing stupid things, and there was once where we were chasing one another with pepper at a wedding banquet and playing with the heavy double doors which clamped Henglip's fingers; playing 老鹰抓小鸡 with Ah Gim always as the mother hen; Henglip's lavish 1st birthday party; playing 'Alligator' at the playground downstairs; how 4pm was the 'freedom' time when Mum would bring Ah Xian, Henglip and me to the playground everyday; how the school field in BTPS (Kar Cheng's, Wee's and my primary school) was rumoured to be a cemetery just because there were patches of red soil and chicken drumstick bones buried there; our childhood pal 猪灯笼, whom we never fail to mention; how Hao Ling used to bear-hug Ah Ping and go around falling in love with Ah Bee and Henglip; and MANY more. In short, I was really glad to have grown up with these wacky people as my cousins.

After dinner, it was back to 2nd Aunt's house for more gambling. Ah Guang, having disappeared from the annual gambling sessions for the past few years, finally revisited this family tradition today by being the dealer for a few rounds of Blackjack. However, we could see that his gambling abilities have deteriorated after years of not exercising them and he incurred heavy losses, much to our delight. He quickly excused himself, saying that he had to go over to 2nd Gim's house, but he never came back.

2nd Aunt stocked up on a variety of New Year goodies, and I particularly loved the honey walnuts and the home-made seaweed rolls. I would love to nibble away the popiah skin and then save the seaweed sheet underneath for the last, but Ah Sir shocked me by snatching away that seaweed sheet from me and gobbling it up. She even dared to declare that she would rather eat the seaweed itself than the whole seaweed roll.

Haoling shared with us her Bobdog candy sticks, shaped like cigarettes and so reminiscent of our childhood days. There Henglip and Haoling were, sucking on those sticks, and the older folks actually thought that they were smoking and scolded them.

Two lost youths puffing away

At one point, someone distributed 2nd Aunt's photo albums around which somehow distracted us from the gambling. Photos of an adolescent Ah Sir was a riot with us, especially Henglip, because we felt that she had an intellectually-disabled look. There was one picture which showed her wearing a hat, to which Henglip said she looked like a leukemia patient and that really cracked us up.

We gambled till midnight, and then left for home reluctantly. Post-festive blues set in and I was looking out of the car window gloomily on the way home in 4th Aunt's car. Wee was crazy to make her parents fetch her to Ah Ma's house just to take a Bee Cheng Hiang paper bag from 1st Uncle.

Sigh, till next Chinese New Year then.

Ah Sir, do you have any more honey walnuts left?