-=| Chinese New Year |=-
*Flash back*
Time line
Sat -I went to meet my friends to do my 3D project.
Sun –Planned to do work, but allowed myself to be a bum.
Mon-I rushed my PowerPoint. It ended with a disaster, tragedy, find any other bad-er words to fill in? Unexpectedly spend the whole night at my friend's place and stayed over the night doing the 3D model.
Tue – For both night and wed morning was spent on painting (A1 piece). So I did not sleep for 2 days and till today it has not been completed.
Wed – Came back after school and was too tired to do any work.
Thu – I tried to write my 1ooo words essay at school. But no, I could not gather any information. I planned to get home to draw A2 pieces of drawings at night for Friday, but I had to rush my essay and therefore I did not complete any drawings.
Fri – Rushed to school to do the page layout of the essay. Missed drawing class, but Kin still attended to my unfinished work and gave me more research to search on.
*End of flash back*
The presentation week has ended last week and the New Year has begun again. Threw all the thoughts of assignments at the back of my mind and tried to enjoy the New Year, but it was yesterday when a group of us in cell travelled across Kallang that those thoughts returned. I guess it is about time I begin to work again.
Nowadays I feel that celebrations are getting too commercialized and it is just a business strategy. Noticed how Halloween and Easter bunnies came about? Decorations on the streets and posted notice boards are so similar to each other and are no different every year, probably just the twelve mascots.
Due to Chinese customs, we are not allowed to trim our hair on Chinese New Year (I wonder how people would look when they do not shave for 15 days.) So on the eve, my sister needed my help to choose the right tone of brown for her hair, she said that she wanted something loud and she had a tough decision between caramel and hazel. I liked the hazel colour and she liked the caramel, but somehow she took the hazel dye and I had the caramel. Since her hair was long, and one bottle of dye was not sufficient, we had to mix both hazel and caramel together. And to her horror she finds her hair colour too light, as if she looks like a lion. But in the first place she wants something loud right? After all I find that her colour was too dark and could be lighter. I thought I had mixed the colour dye thoroughly in the bottle but in fact the caramel, which was lighter, was below the hazel and I used the remainder to touch up the sides and areas which was not properly done, which resulted highlights. Maybe we were not supposed to mix the colour at all, as probably the hazel dye was lighter in buoyancy then the caramel, and therefore the caramel sunk to the base of the bottle. I did have some creative dying on my own, but the colour was too dark to show or my base colour was already quite light.
In the evening we sat the bus from the Yishun bus interchange all the way to China town, the reason my dad gave for such a decision was that we could experience the New Year. Yeah right! More like seeing busy cars riding across speedily then seeing the busy Chinese people working their way to sell their products away, either way was boring to me. I guess he began to regret that decision, as we walked into a bazaar and we had an eye for a lot of things. I saw this exact shell bracelet which we thought we had a great bargain in Bangkok for just one dollar. I guess I have to walk around china town once in a while.
We had reunion dinner at China town, the usual vegetarian restaurant. Food was not too bad, but it was not great either. What I liked most was their mushroom soup which was loosely translated as “shark fin soup”. They used lots of mushrooms, vermicelli, bean curd skin, and even more mushrooms to create the texture of real sharks fin. I was surprised to see that there were no clumps of tapioca starch in the midst of my soup, which is quite unsightly and common in the other vegetarian restaurants. In the conversations we were saying about what we could do in Chinese New Year and what we should not. In the Chinese culture it is said that we cannot curse or say inauspicious stuff, but that does not include bitching, which says bad things about the other person. And we were all expecting to have a big major bitching session when all the cousins gather together.
It reminded me of the many accounts where my sister and I met a guy in a red costume claiming to be god of fortune and McDonalds, crowding around children giving them chocolate coins, what pedophilic behavior. Since we cannot curse people on such a glorious day, I wonder how staunch Christians would react.
Joel *trying to be a staunch Christian*:
Demon from hell! Go away!
Step back you evil spirit!
On the way home, we saw this busker guy (whatever it is, bustard!) who stood on a platform like a statue and only moves when money is put in his bucket. (Yeah! Kick his bucket!) It is quite famous to have such artistic exhibits on the roads of Barcelona and Europe, but not in Singapore. That poor guy stood there the whole day, and just received flashes of Camera but not money. And as for evil me, I was just taunting him with my sister, and I could see that he was quite affected.
Joel:
Hey try poking him to see if he is really professional!
Oh my god! Look at him! He is shaking already.
He is even blinking! How professional.
God! There is even more people out there doing these stunts, better go brush up your skills.
I did not go near him, neither did I touch him, but he looked really pissed off and gave me a 'you better remember this' look. I guess the government is trying to promote art to the heartlands, and this might just be one of their initial moves.
When I got home, I had to transform my dirty, messy ugly room to clean, neat and tidy. Due to the recent reshuffling, renovations and presentation, it was a mammoth task. Multiple boxes stacked up like a tower in my room and I wonder where do I store them now.
The first day of New Year was great, an exchange of tangerines to receive red talisman of wealth. Free flow of tidbits exhibits on a table with no obstruction to how much to obtain. Cousins gather in the room like sardines, playing cards and sharing stories. Just that I received my first scolding, just on the first day of the new year. My dad had a huge verbal war with my dad about a cake. He brought it out to the open and forgot about it. When my mother discovered it, it was not only melted but disfigured and infested with little creatures.
Dad: Joel, I bought a cake yesterday, you want to go and eat?
Joel: ok.
Dad: Eat cake also have to ask you to go.
Oh my God! You want to invite me to eat your cake and you can still blame me for your invitation. What an unreasonable man! Even though you lost your battle with your spouse does not mean you can get back at me.
The second day was a trip to the movies, to watch “just follow law”. It was quite unoriginal, which was quite similar to chemistry and freaky Friday. There was a swap of bodies and souls, and both character soon understood how each other felt.
The third day was a trip to Christon’s house. There I met Hydon, Sophrain, Rachel, Frank and many more. There I found out that Mrs. Liah is no more teaching. It is so interesting to catch up with people I have not met in a while. Went to Art Friend to try out the Copic markers with Andrew and Sean, the markers does not bleed as much it claims to be. Probably throughout the years they had already improved on it. I went to Jurong point to have some fun at the Arcade. It has been a long time since I played Para Para. God! I’ve totally lost it. The game machine is quite limited with the choices of songs and their high scores were quite high, which means the machine is not deserted. Went back to Alison’s place to have a few sessions of Mahjong, we played a dong and it was fabulous. The table was spoiled and we rolled the tiles on the floor till we got crams in our feet. My luck was not that good, but the game was fun.
I guess although the New Year has been commercialized by the media, the main idea of the festive season is still there, to reunite the family and to allow bonds to gel, forget the past and create the new future. I wonder if it would still apply to our family, our clan meets up every week, or should I say, most of our clan meets up every week. But anyway it is good to have fun and see each other three days in a row, some had four.
B!0
Name : Joel Xiang Desheng P3RS0N@L!TY
Personality : Flamboyant T@g W!SH3S 3M@!l CURR3NT M00D W3@TH3R F00T PR!NTS !N 3 S@nd R@D!0 ST@T!0NS P@ST R3CORDS L!NKS
DOB : 19th May 1988
Age : 19+
Height : 1.73++m
Weight : Abt 60kg
Zodiac : Dragon
Horroscope : Taurus
Fav Sports : Breathing exercises on the bed every night(snore)
Fav colour : Blue, silver, black
Fav things : Vintage looking stuff...
Hates : People who commands me to do anything
Worst habits : Talking back, bitching...
Best Habits : Obeys house rules
How do u relax : Bitching, complaining, vibrate my ear drums with sound waves from my disc man
One thing tat no one noes abt? : i'm Sentimental...
Three words 2 describe me : Rude Noisy Freak
One liner tat i'm most proud of : Being kind to your enemy means to be cruel to yourself
Moto in life : Look 4 a goal n strife hard
