Chinese New Year greetings from Malaysia

Greetings, dear reader

I am now in Malaysia and have just finished helping Uncle Seng Chong (my 阿舅, Mum's oldest brother) and cousins set up decorations around the house for the New Year, which is now only a matter of hours away. As I am a "tiger", this coming year has special significance for me, and I am so excited to celebrate it in a country where Chinese New Year is a recognized public holiday.

I had a wonderful two days in Singapore, catching up with Jenny over dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant in the Orchard district, and then spending the day going around Singapore with Auntie Irene (who is technically one of my distant cousins but because she is much older than me, I feel more comfortable addressing her as 'Auntie' Irene) before we met for dinner with my distant niece Diana (also older than me), who recently finished her studies in Australia.

I departed Singapore with my cousins late yesterday afternoon, after they had all returned from their half-day at work and packed their bags. The trip back to Kluang - my Mum's hometown, about one-and-a-half hour's drive up from Johor Bahru - ended up taking around four hours! Although Friday traffic on the Causeway is normally quite heavy, this particular Friday was part of what we Chinese call chun yun (春运), that time of the year when Chinese people go back to join their families for the New Year festivities. In addition, I was required to re-write my entry form at the Malaysian border, as new ones had been issued at the start of the month.

On this evening, Chinese families across the world will gather together for a sumptuous feast called tuan nian fan (团年饭). The dinner I shared with my uncle and cousins was quite sumptuous indeed - STEAMBOAT with vegetables, tofu, and various fish paste stuffs.

Tomorrow, I look forward to catching up with the rest of my aunts and uncles and cousins, getting more 红包 (hong bao - red packets of extra spending money for Hong Kong!) and eating more delicious food!

OK, that's it for now. With a big GRROOAAAARRRRR to scare away the evil spirits, I wish you all a very prosperous and blessed Year of the Tiger, cheers and God bless!

Jeremy