Hey everybody Happy Chinese New Year! If I were to blog yday then it would be abt my very aching right arm. Today I had a splendid day, well maybe the costume played a big part. You gotta check out my entire family's CNY way of usher in the new year with our matching oriental outfit.
Maybe it is 'fong sap' (athritis)?! I just felt this surge of painful sensation on my entire right arm towards the late evening after reunion dinner. Probably due to my wholeday of helping mom in the kitchen while cleaning some old stuff while scrubbing some dirt while ... i dunno.. i just did what I could for the entire new year's eve.
Reunion dinner is always a major event, this year we invited my dad's cousin sister who lives nearby to join us, cos their son went overseas. Ok actually our big round table cannot fit everybody. 11 people. Actually there were 3 people less, as predicted since last year they didn't turn up. Oh this year, I was really like the maid with no kakak around! Imagine ALL the dirty dishes.. everything la.. including the wok... I washed it all up, using the really low kitchen basin (built for my mom's height serious). Thinking back of camp days where each group got cleaning duty, I say it's good training. Still.. I'm right handed, I used up so much strenght with my right arm... *fuissh... I just self proclaim to dad that I was the most hardworking one... yeah but there was no one else to compare with. My bro?! d'oh.
Angpow... is there an age limit to receiving angpow? This year, I felt the more harsh critism from everybody including my neighbour! First there was an aunt who threaten to penalize me for still not having a boyfriend yet, and giving me warning to get married by this year! D'oh. Then there's my Indian neighbour who's son is younger than me, when somebody asked abt his son, he started tai-chi attention back to me "I've been waiting 22 long years to see this day happen... " (*cough cough*) yeah so he moved in to become my neighbour that many years ago and we're just great neighbours. Who else.. oh my own closest uncle who supports the opposition just as well, who's big-time born-again who lives next door... he asked "how old are you?" .. "Why you still dont want to get married?"... (*hullo? u need a guy to married with?).. "so why no guy like you? how can??..." (so I just casually said becos all guys stupid)... "WHAT? Your thinking is wrong... you're selfish, I think you need to come for my counselling..."
I rest my case.
Incase u're wondering how to get out of that conversation? Serve ur uncle really nice steamy curry fish to shut him up.
On another very interesting note, I've found out WHERE in the WORLD my greatgrand father came from... taking it away.. it's "Teo Ann" and the village is "Nee Leng Quek".. or something like that.. my uncle dont speak Mandarin. He heard this from his uncle who's passed away.. and I wonder how I'm ever gonna trace back where in the world this Quek lineage came about.
It seems that my great grand father's grandfather came from China to Singapore and started business in Johor?! I forgot what business was that, but somehow to become so rich that he was, somehow my uncle guess it involves gambling. Cool, so my ancestors were great gamblers?! Huh.. so anyway, by the time of my greatgrandfather, the wealth was easily 'used' up. Probably got cheated and hearsay he was a womaniser. So that's it my grandfather lived a poor man sharing the same house with his siblings, in Setapak KL. Wait... rollback, my grandfather was born in Singapore.. there is a Chinese temple built/owned by my greatgrandfather in Singapore with the ancestral altar kept there. That's why my grandma when she was still alive she often travels to Singapore... hey they say I went to SG when I was just 2 year old.. like doh if I knew.
So anyway, I guess the Teochew people can be found from the south in Johor and Sg... its not a major clan. In China, the Teochew clan is within the Guangzhou state, seperated by a mountain nontheless living beside the Hokkien, so Teochew dialect is similar to Hokkien. Bleh... my Chinese-illiterate uncle was narrating the story, believable or not? Beats me.
Oh dad added, in HK movies, the gangster were always Teochew.. :P Haiya.. kakinang, paksi boh siang kang.
Anyway, that's the end of my CNY chapter for the 1st day. 2nd day will be along long tiresome day. Seems my mom's uncle is critically ill, he couldn't even travel back to Taiping, first time this year. So we'll visit this grandunc, visit another aunty for lunch, before deciding what time to travel up north to Taiping where my mom's family will be waiting for us. Basically Taiping is another long story, with so many granduncles and grandaunties... but I probably dont draw as big attention as other distant cousins of mine... so hopefully I'll be spared from the ever inevitable question.
Oh, next big question that I'm "lazy" to answer anybody is "what do you do?" ... I'm a Systems Engineer... what system? Computer systems... do what? Support... support what? ... is there a script somewhere I can read to explain to uncles and aunties what i do?
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