The Days of CNY (2)

5th Day (cont)
Had dinner with schoolfriends - Jonie, Li Bin, Michelle, Mei Heong and Bee Gaik - at Loong Foong restaurant. Then they came over to my house for some gambling. Unfortunate me lost about RM60 at my first session of "in-between" this year.

6th Day
Watched my 1st full DVD in the family AV room. "In Her Shoes" stars Cameron Diaz and is a great chick flick. Enjoyed it lots :) I think chick flicks and chick lit now rules the lives of girls as how Mills & Boon once did for the generation before. Went to a friend's apartment for short round of mahjong. Then went to Jonie's house for her annual CNY gathering - complete with lion dance. And then, the dear won back some money for me from the "in-between" game! :)

7th Day - Friends' Day
My house was opened for young people all day. In the morning, my sister and I went to Giant Kelana Jaya to do another round of sweeping - this time it was the plastic chairs. The afternoon session had my sisters' friends from school, IBM and university crowding into our house for lunch and gambling and UNO Stacko (for the un-money orientated). I popped over to ML's house for a couple of hours before coming back with the whole group to BBQ on that miraculous BBQKing grill. Another hand-gripping round of "in-between" went on again - seems to be the gambling game of the year.

8th Day
My dad's "kai zhai" came over with his family. So, as usual whenever there are babies and kids, we brought out UNO Stacko - that game fascinates all young kids. Finally, the whole week of CNY celebrations is coming to an end. Lepak-ed the rest of the day away.

9th Day
That's today, the day most people return to work. Well, I didn't. I'm due in the office tomorrow, because I took an additional day's leave. So I'll just hang around typing up my thesis and hang out with my best friend who just returned from Sydney this morning.

CNY's not at an end yet though, chap goh meh's this coming Sunday. Tomorrow till Friday it'll be work. But Friday night there's the annual gathering with my coursemates. And it'll probably be another 2 days of visiting and catching up with friends before the celebrations close for the year.

The only constancy in all these celebrations is that you get to see faces you seldom see, catch up with friends, and of course, see various facets of character surface during the long gambling sessions. CNY celebrations are merely just to bring noises of merriment to the various homes visited - noises of which are meant to signify happy activities and joy throughout the year. Indeed, CNY celebrations are nothing deeply meaningful - just lots of noise. No wonder they say Chinese people are noisy. I shall look forward to the contented peace that follows after chap goh meh, and of course, definitely looking forward to the days after CNY when the sun doesn't shine with such amazing intensity - until the next lunar new year.