Happy New Year!

The dog left and the pig joined us. Here's how the Chongs celebrated Chinese New Year (CNY).

CNY Eve:

Last-minute mad rush to the nurseries to pick up the pussy willows and the blooms for the table centrepiece. The cold room was freezing cold! That's why they called it the cold room right?? To make things worse, I was in a typical Libran dither. Could not decide what colours, what combination of flowers to buy. I went from Australian wild flowers to roses and baby's breath (yes very 80s and very passe) and dawdled among the chrysanthemums before I decided: ok! one bunch of yellow chrysanthemums, one lot of purple heather-like stuff and orange/red wildflowers (don't ask me what their names are).

Back home, cut and arranged the flowers (not happy with this year's arrangment) and the kids decorated the pussy willows.

Dinner was at 8. Since my MIL has just moved in with my BIL, she decided not to cook for reunion dinner so we made reservations for ZiYean at Lengkok Bahru.

We love the stuff at this place. The dim sum and the czechar is really to die for. Every dish that I've tried there was good. I have never been disappointed yet. That night, the place was packed. Tentage out in the carpark, out in the gardens and yet people will milling about waiting for their turn in the restaurant. There were two sittings - one at 5pm and the other at 8pm.

Food was great. Many sharks died for us that night. We had the lucky raw fish, the sharksfin soup (very yummy and the beauty of eating with kids who only want to play is that I get second helpings! Okay I am not being very PC here. I feel sorry for the sharks. But I have to admit that I lurvve my sharksfin soup!). We also had baby abalone (the kids had left the table to play outside the restaurant so I got at least 4 helpings!! Can you tell that gluttony is a major sin with me?) .

Dinner finally over, we headed home where the kids tried to stay awake so that KH and I could have long lives. I tried to chase them off to bed because I never wanted to live that long anyway - 70 is max for me. But they outlasted me, thanks to Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant cavorting on telly. I think I conked by 11pm. What does that mean for my mum 'n' dad??

Day 1

We did the tea ceremony thing. We do this every year where the kids would give us tea (we don't make them kneel!) stammer out their well-rehearsed New Year wishes and earn a red packet. This year we realised we ran out of chinese tea and had to make do with Liptons. To make a bit more authentic, we didn't add sugar - haha. I was really hungry 'cos the monsters woke up late (thanks to Sandra Bullock et al) and we had to scramble for time getting them dressed and ready. So we had the fastest tea ceremony ever - whizzing through all 5 twice! Had great steamed carrot cake for brekkie - it was damn good! Must ask Jessie where she got this cake.

After that, we went for mass. All looking very spiffy in our best of the best. After mass, we hit my mom's place where everyone oohed at Trin tottering around in her cute little red cheongsam. After a great lunch of my mom's all-time best - traditional Peranakan favourites like bakwan kepiting and ayam buah keluak, we hit the mahjong table. This year, my ship came in. Finally. After so many years of humiliating bankrupt defeat at the hands of my father, sister and brother, I finally, actually WON! Won big too! Woohoo!

After that, it was on to the in-laws. The kids had fun. We had - sigh - KFC and Pizza Hut!! Sacrilegious for CNY first day! So while the kids played and my ILs talked among themselves and played blackjack, I watched Harry Potter on telly. Daniel Radcliffe looked a lot cuter back then than he does now. In the commercial breaks, I whip out my Tokyo handbook and plot...You can tell: I was having the time of my life.

Day 2

Granny's place. The cousins and aunties etc were all there. We ate well for lunch - my aunt cooked her own buah keluak, mum contributed chap-chye and another aunt gave tempura prawns with wasabi-mayo dip (very yum!). Dessert was konnyaku jelly (which women in my antenatal class will never view with the same enthusiasm again after I described the bloody show using that analogy) and American carrot cake - sinfully good with a thick coat of cream cheese on top!

Headed for a good friend's place after that - where we were once again plied with food - great beehoon with bak-kut teh, a lusciously creamy thick royal choc cake, eclairs and the usual CNY goodies. After the kids sang their way through two-thirds of High School Musical, played 8 rounds of computer games, and collected their red packets, we left. KH took the kids to his sister's place while I took Trin and headed for mum's. One more triumphant round of mahjong where I actually made some serious money. Brilliant!

Day 3

Breakfast at McDonalds. The kids clamoured for cousin-time but I was not having any of it. Three days of the ILs was more than enough. After that, we left the kids at home and went to a movie. Protege. Great movie. I thought Andy Lau bore more than a passing resemblance to KH thanks to his salt n pepper cropped hairstyle. Thought Daniel Wu was quite cute too. But he looked too much like Andre Yeo (a reporter friend who works with The New Paper) for me to think he's hot!

The movie was good. Well-paced. Interesting characterisation.

For me, the key figure in the whole movie was not Andy Lau's drug boss or Daniel Wu's mole role. It was the little girl. The cute, plump little girl who was the daughter of the drug addict. The scene where she came across her mother, slumped in an armchair in a drug-induced bliss, and nonchalantly pulled out the syringe still in her mother's arm to throw it into a wastebin filled with drug paraphernalia - that said it all. When I saw that, I immediately missed my babes. It made me want to run home and give them a hug, to protect them and try my best not to screw them up for life.

The child was really the centre of it all - it was heartbreaking. Watching her, I have no doubt that these same scenes are being played out all over the world - children who see their parents shoot up, watch while their mothers prostitute themselves for money to nurture a drug habit, or see their parents die from an overdose. What does she think of it all? What goes through her mind as she lives like this? The movie does not say. The little girl just looks stoic, never complaining or making any judgement or observation. Perhaps it is normal to her. Its just really sad to me.

And then you contrast it with Andy Lau's family - the druglord with a pregnant wife, two children. They grow up wanting nothing - a typical well-to-do family. Only thing is, daddy deals drugs. He's just a businessman with a product to sell. He doesn't believe in the stuff. Despises the addicts. Insists they have choices, denies any responsibility for their choices. But in the end, I guess you can't divorce yourself from taint of drugs. When things came crashing down, his family suffered too. It was sad and painful to watch. Nobody wins. I like movies like these - no clear-cut heroes or baddies. Just very real, human roles playing out tragedies that also do happen in real life.

I left the cinema disturbed and thoughtful. Thinking not only about the drug situation, but also about parenting. So much for a start to the new year!