A little break from Bali pictures - It's Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is approaching - fast! But seriously, nothing feels like Chinese New Year this year. For starters, I don't look Chinese anymore after the tan. Mom was asking me last night when would my skin peel off to reveal the fair skin I used to have. Sorry - that ain't going to happen so soon, maybe not in this lifetime anymore. Thank goodness I don't get sunburn, so I don't peel and I get tanned right away. I've grown a little lighter since but that's just because I've not had the chance to see much sun since I got back. But for sure, I am keeping the tan.

Secondly, there's not much Chinese New Year decor around. Maybe in the shopping malls but at this moment shopping malls are not my kind of thing and if I go, it's for sports specialty shops. The Chinese believe that one must wear new clothes on New Year so that you will not run out of clothes to wear for the whole year. I've not gotten any new clothes and don't intend to. I think I have enough clothes in my cupboard and would definitely not run out of clothes for the next 2 or 3 years even if I don't buy any and keep giving away some every 2 or 3 months.

There's always the Chinese New Year food which helps you get into the mood - lo sang (9 different kinds of ingredients - raw salmon, vegetables, nuts blended with sesame seed oil and honey), monk jumps over the wall (I don't remember what this is), jiu hu char (cuttlefish and vegetables - one of my favorites but since Mom cooks this often, it isn't specifically for New Year anymore), etc. So far, I've not had any of these nor seen the raw ingredients so there goes, nothing to put you into that New Year mood. I see two tubs of ice-cream in the freezer though!

More? I will be working throughout the 9 days stretch of holidays. One has to take only one Friday off this year just to get that whole stretch of holidays for New Year. Me? Thanks to being in a job which serves the global market, I will be back to work every alternate day starting on Monday, the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. The good thing about this though is that I get replacement days off which I could use on any other days when everyone else is working!




And so I tried to visit a temple on the day they had a gathering with lots of food to remind myself that New Year is coming. Here are some of the pictures I took which may represent New Year but that was all I could get. But do notice that 'X-Files' picture I got instead. I swear, these two pictures were taken just few seconds apart. There are no light bulbs flashing, the camera lens were ok, there was nothing which could have caused those X-Files light balls and yet there are at least 5 of them there? I swear no kid was blowing soap bubbles either.

So here goes - trying to get into the New Year mood but instead I got into X-Files mode.
Have a harmonious, happy and prosperous New Year, filled with good fortune, luck, good health and as many '8' s or '9's that you wish to have. Does that sound Chinese enough?