Thursday, January 26, 2006
Seng Jia Joo Yee
26 January 2006 - Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Typically, it is a time for family reunion meal, visiting relatives & friends and giving of ‘red packet’. There are also the lion dance, fireworks and the mahjong (swimming on the land!)
In Hong Kong, the ‘must haves’ other than ‘lai see’ for each home visit: 6 or 8 pieces of fruits and/or a box of chocolate/cookies (must be wrapped up!). The host will express his/her appreciation with a ‘lai see’ and sometimes returning some fruits/chocolates/cookies you brought. Well, most visitors would kindly decline to reduce the already heavy load of goodies for next visit.
In Singapore, you could not leave your house without 2 or 4 mandarin oranges (no sunkit oranges, no other fruits!) and of course the ‘ang pow’. You must also accept the exchange of oranges before you leave.
To each its own way of celebration. Whichever style it maybe, the most important of all is keeping the relationship – a Chinese trait. I’m not too ‘Chinese’ this year, will be spending the new year with a group of friends-to-be touring parts of Eastern China. I hope the frequent home trips I made and those heart warming & relaxing meals with family & friends make up for my absence.
Finally, Chinese New Year is not Chinese New Year to me without these traditional Teochew wishes for you & your family:
SENG JIA JOO YEE
SENG NEE TUA TANG
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Be Free!
22 January 2006 - It was a beautiful Sunday – I spent the morning cleaning the home, cooked Coconut Chicken Soup, walked around the estate in the afternoon and jogged at Bowen Walk at a cool weather of about 13 degrees! I may miss the harbour view at Queen’s Terrace but I am delighted to have fresher air, chirping of birds in the morning and Hopewell’s ‘disco lighting’ at night at my new Hoover Tower apartment in Wan Chai Hong Kong.
A beautiful day with a beautiful message! St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians 7:29-31 calls us out of our worldly preoccupations and daily obsessions. We live, we enjoy, we grieve, but we do not allow these things to become a prison for us. Be Free!
