Celebrating the Chinese New Year (KL & Kluang)

Our first two days of CNY was spent in the city.  Besides the occasional visits to my in-laws', it was mostly spent at home catching up on backlogs.  Finally completed processing some photos and will be sending them out for develop after the holiday,  detoxed my wardrobe of clothes that I haven't touch for the last 6 months, browsed thru a dozen of interior magazine and marking out good ideas... 

There is seriously nothing much to do in a city during CNY.  No one to visit or come to visit, most friends already left town and most of the shops were closed.  So you can imagine. 

There were plenty of eating too.  It started way before CNY.  The first dinner was with the husband's company on 25/1, then the Spyder People (MRS) on 29/1... then was with relatives on 1/2, family 2/2 and again, family 4/2.  And I skipped one with the company which supposed to be on 21/1 because I just couldn't see those 10 course chinese meals anymore and another one with relatives back in Kluang on 5/2 due to an unfortunate event (will elaborate later).   And we just got back from another one tonight and yet, the eating spree is still not quite over.  There is still gonna be two more.  Lunch with bosses & dinner with friends.  Perfect 10 in total!

As usual, every CNY's dinner start off with tossing of the 'Yu Sang'.  I lost count of how many 'Yu Sang' I've tossed this CNY.  11 times if I remember correctly.  The extra one time was with a gf at a japanese restaurant.  :p This tossing of 'Yu Sang' tradition is pretty interesting one.  Somehow, it only practised in this part of the world - Malaysia & Singapore.  Not in HongKong nor China.  Strange huh?

From Wiki:

'Yu Sang' 鱼生,is a Teochew-style raw fish salad consisting strips of raw fish (salmon usually), placed on top of shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments which later being mixed together by tossing with pairs of chopsticks while saying something auspicious.  'Yu Sang 鱼生' literally means 'raw fish' but since 'fish 鱼' is commonly conflated with its homophone 'abundance 余', 'Yu Sang' is interpreted as 'increase in abundance', a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor!

As in all Chinese dinners, there will always be our unique way of toasting.  Screaming 'yum seng' at the top of our lung!  Lols...  Don't ask me what 'yum seng' means.  I don't know.  I would usually just raise the glass and mime the words... lols.

Was back in Kluang on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year to visit mom.  I was too lazy to drag out my camera plus the husband's laptop doesn't come with a card reader.  So I was very smart.  I took photos with his webcame instead.  But somehow, it all turned out in mirror image.  Lols... Nevertheless, at least something to share la....

Mom decorated her newly painted house with lots of red CNY ornaments.  She even planted some arrow roots.  A little research explains that the purpose of planting this plant is because the shape of it's leaf is like an arrow pointing upwards which symbolizes continuous improvement.  Hmmm....? I wonder...

There were also those typical CNY goodies like these 'love letters' at home and they were yummy!

This has nothing to do with CNY even though it is all RED in colour.  :p.  Just a picture of me graduating kindergarten to share.  Lols.

Anyway, to cut long story short (cause I am pretty sleepy already), what supposed to be a happy 3d 2n trip back home to celebrate Chinese New Year with mom ended only 3 hours after we arrived cause mom's favourite silky terrier, Million, went missing.  It must have slipped out when the door was opened. Apparently, a neighbour saw a guy trying to get Million.  I tell you arr.., I also don't know why they tell us after the dog is missing.  Sigh...  Mom is so distraught.  I hope whoever took Million would return her.

So the rest of our trip was spent printing 'missing dog' flyers, distributing them, sticking them up every poles we see, advertising it in newspaper & etc.  Basically, spreading the news.  Hopefully someone would notice Million somewhere and notify us. :(

Sigh.... wanna celebrate CNY peacefully also cannot.... it is either heart attack, family feuds or now, missing dog.  *headache*