CHINESE NEW YEAR DO

Chinese New Year celebrations are finally slowing down, the invitations get fewer, the sound of firecrackers become more distant and sporadic and you see your cache of goodies dwindling.......... This CNY is especially quiet for us as Serene, Meng How and Paul were not here to celebrate it with us. New Year Eve dinner was sombre and we wondered what our children were eating as we were feasting over here. As 1st day of CNY falls on a Sunday, there was the usual greetings of "Xin Nien Kwai Leh !" after church. Then some friend approached us and enqiuired whether they are invited to the CNY 'do' at my place. This was a surprise as I had no idea my annual CNY parties had become a tradition with our friends.

We had our Chinese New Year open house on the second night of CNY ( for a change) It's usually done in the daytime ( 9 am to 2 pm) but since I'm now posted to KK, and most of my staff are in KK, I thought night celebration would be more fun and it was ! We had the food catered - nasi briayani, tomato chicken, lamb curry, sweet and sour fish, acar, mixed vegetables and satay. For dessert, it was watermelon and mandarin oranges and bubur cha cha. We had the tables lay out in the garden and our guests wandered round the garden throughout the evening. Unfortunately, the cameraman who was tasked to take the pics, was so engrossed in attending to the guests that he forgot to snap any pictures. So no pic, sorry. Some of the Malay guests were dressed in chinese style clothes - brocade and mandarin collar - I was in sweet pink chinese outfit.

One good outcome from this party is that we to got to know our Indian neighbour - the doctor was so pleased to have been invited that he called his wife who was in KL to inform her and her instructions were : " If you have any other appointment, cancel them and make this function your top priority !" He told us that he had often wondered what our house looked like inside and had wished to see it. And Sam later discovered the doc was actually his ex-classmate's father ! Some neighbours indeed !!