Well this is the most important day for Chinese people! The celebration of the upcoming ox year tomorrow morning. Although the economy is considerably gloom in last year, a lot of people hold new hope on the upcoming year to bring good fortune to everybody.
On his CNY message, Singapore Prime Minister said that the year of the ox will be a challenging one as the economic growth is expected to be negative for the whole year. As one of the economic stimulus, just at the end of last week, Singapore government announced income and property tax rebate (to help Singaporean to pay for their first home). I coincidentally watched this news inside bus ongoing way home.
What I see as good thing from government here is the quickness of response and bluntness of explanation. Of course it is not a good sign to begin a new year, but the sun will still rise tomorrow nevertheless.
So it is time to celebrate! Last night all the CNY-attributes-selling shops were doing their latest night to sell their merchandise, so what can you think? Great discount!
The people were concentrated at market area of Chinatown, and also like dangdut show in Indonesia: one stage were built in the middle of Eu Tong Sen St.
And not to mention yesterday night was the first time I encountered people did "busking".
Today 11.oo am, we did our new year's eve .. well.. lunch (I know, it suppose to be dinner, but since it was hard to find place for dining...). Since my family is not here, I did my reunion lunch with my uncle's family (whose place I currently live at). The restaurant was at Spring Court. 52 Upper Cross St.
And afterward we left for Vivo City and watched "Love Matters", a Singaporean movie which takes KL as its settings. For me it was quite an experience to see movie with such riches in languange and cultures (Chinese, some Hokkian, English, and Malay).
One quite memorable scene was when this guy yelled in Chinese at an Indians since the Indians did the repair on portal system, and he wanted to pass through. The Indians then yelled back and explained the problem in Chinese. And as the guy looked stunned, the Indians said "What, do u think Indians can't speak Chinese?" All the conversation was in Chinese and it was quite amazing to see an Indian actually spoke Chinese.
Well but no matter how fun it is, I still miss my family. I wonder how they are going to do their reunion dinner tonight, I miss my mom and dad, my brother and sister in law. I miss my home, the flower arrangement, the home-made cookies, the hong-bao tree.
I remember that just these few later years my father suddenly become stricter on holding CNY's eve dinner. As the second generation (mine) are getting older and married, my father and mother's generation are focusing their CNY celebration with their own family and grandchildren.
Hope that this lunar new year will bring us all good health and blessings for times to come!
